Darkness Becomes Her
by Twyla Mercedes
Summary: The Dark One, freed from its long-time host, avidly seeks another to control and consume. When the Darkness doubles back to re-take Rumple, its old familiar host, Belle throws herself between the Darkness and her One True Love. The Darkness turns and takes her instead. Dark Belle (with Rumple, of course). Don't own any of these OUAT characters
1. Chapter 1

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter One**

 **Another Beginning**

The floor could have used a good sweeping.

She noticed it only because she was sitting on the floor, sitting on the floor next to the still, reclining body of her husband - sitting on the floor of his darkened shop, the half-light muting the rich burnished browns of the woods into a cashmere patina.

Yes, she could see the floor needed sweeping.

She was alone, except for him. Everyone else had rushed out of the shop, debouching into the town's square to follow the sweeping, swirling foul entrails of the Dark Curse.

She was alone, unable to abandon him. She looked down at his quiescent form.

 _Push him away. Push him away so he can't use you anymore, can't lie to you anymore, can't hurt you anymore._

No, no. She would never be strong enough to push him away again.

Belle sat on the floor holding his hand with one of hers and using the other to brush the hair back from his face. She loved this man so much.

She didn't notice anything at first. There was no noise except for the distant shouting in the town square. She assumed there was some type of confrontation between Regina and the Charmings with The Darkness, that It was hunting new prey, some new soul to attach itself to, to consume, to possess.

Perhaps they were fighting it off. Perhaps they had realized some way to contain it. She glanced around. Rumple's dagger was next to her. It was blank now, no name emblazoned on the blade.

Only then, while she glanced at the dagger did she see it, a slight movement catching her eye. A single inky oily filament slithering into the shop, like a slender finger of pure darkness, looking for its target. She saw it as it inevitably made its way to Rumple, tentative at first, but as soon as it touched him, so familiar with his form, his smell, his very essence, it began to wrap itself around his ankle and then it began to tug.

"No!" Belle shouted, standing up, doing her best to get between the tendril and her husband. "You will _not_ have him again! Take me, you son of bitch! Take me!" And she picked up the dagger and began to stab at the Darkness.

And suddenly a whirlwind of Darkness rushed into the room, surrounding her, swallowing her and finally disappearing into her.

Then Belle disappeared.

Out in the courtyard, Emma and Regina were running back to the shop. At moment earlier they had stood together recognizing that the Darkness was seeking a new host, vying for position, each willing to take it on to protect the ones they loved. They had watched it as it touched and tasted each of those in the town square, most shuddering at the acrid, unholy feel of the dark energies.

Then it had abruptly vanished.

"Where did it go?" Snow asked. "I thought it was going to take Emma and then suddenly it was gone."

"Grandpa," Henry said. "It went back to get Grandpa." He was looking toward the shop.

Emma looked at Regina. "Belle's in there with him." She knew, she knew that Belle would throw herself in front of the Darkness. She knew that Belle wouldn't let Gold be taken twice by the Dark Curse. She was already running back to the shop closely followed by the others.

They were met with a rushing, roaring wind, a stinking, fetid whirlwind that smelled like an open sewer kept inside a slaughterhouse. They were brought up short and all immediately covered their mouths and noses, gagging in the stench.

Then everything was clear and calm and silent.

Gold was still lying comatose on the floor of his shop.

Belle was missing.

Regina spoke first, "It took Belle. Where's the dagger?"

Killian winced. "I had almost picked it up but didn't when that thing went out of the shop. The last time I saw it, it was next to the crocodile."

"Then she picked it up," Regina concluded. She looked at the others, "We have a new Dark One."

 **Thereafter . . .**

There was a moment of confusion, of deciding what to do, deciding what needed to be done next. Snow called the hospital for an ambulance.

"He's still alive, right?" She was talking about Gold. "We can't just leave him here."

"But it's probably not a problem the hospital can help him with," Regina told her.

"Perhaps not. But we don't exactly have a Magic Rehab Memorial Clinic we can send him to, do we?" Snow pursued it. "He's not waking up. He's vulnerable. No matter what we think about him, we can't just leave him here."

"Mom's right. He has so many enemies. Any of them could come after him now that he's helpless. We've not always agreed with him . . . okay, okay, we've hardly ever agreed with him," she corrected when all members of the group began to protest. "But it's not right to leave him. It's just not right."

The ambulance had come and the attendants had placed Gold on a stretcher and had taken him on to the Emergency Room. Emma had insisted on going with him. She felt that she had the closest connection with the man; he was the grandfather of her child, the father of her first True Love. She sent everyone else home, letting them know she would call as soon as she knew anything. Killian had protested but had eventually capitulated. He promised to come by and check on her if Gold was put in a room. Regina promised to come by and relieve her in the morning (if it turned out to be necessary).

 **Later That Evening . . .**

For some time now, Emma had been sitting in a hard orange plastic chair in a harshly florescent lit room with sharp edges on the black shadows. The room was set off from the large pulse center of the Emergency Room, a little room where people could be quickly triaged for their next level of service. There were three people hooking Gold up to an IV, to a heart monitor, to other instruments to monitor his breathing, his blood pressure, a myriad of other body functions. They were looking at the telemetry spewing out of one of the machines.

"His heart looks good." Viktor Whale had been called down to the Emergency Room to attend. Despite his other moral crimes, Gold had been a heavy contributor to the hospital. He'd kept it quiet, of course – no need for the residents of the town to think better of the town monster. By the time the ambulance pulled in, the Hospital had marshalled their best trauma team. "In fact, his heart looks excellent."

Emma sat quietly remembering the charred, hardened organ that had been removed from his chest. She had a vague memory that it had been replaced with . . . something glowing¸ glowing white and clear.

"What happened?" Viktor was talking to her.

"He was dying, the human part of him. The Curse was taking over, swallowing him up. If it had been successful then only the Dark One would have remained. So the Apprentice removed his heart, cleansed it, and replaced it, driving out the Dark One. He lost consciousness during . . . the procedure. "

Viktor had listened quietly, long ago having dispensed with his disbelief of magic. "You know that his condition is more likely . . . magical, rather than something physical."

"I do, but I also know that he is more human now than he was before. He has a lot of enemies and he doesn't have magic to heal himself. He's . . . vulnerable. We can protect him in the hospital until he regains consciousness."

"If you want to," Viktor told her dubiously. "So you want to stay with him?"

"I will. Regina will come and relieve me in the morning. There may be some others that will help guard him."

"Why?" Viktor asked. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why?" Emma repeated. She hesitated. She'd already addressed this once with her family and Regina and Killian. How could she explain the debt the town owned him? He was a convoluted bastard but despite of everything he'd done, perhaps because of everything he'd done – they owed him something. He had done what he did for love. Taking on the Dagger Curse, taking years to spin everything together to cast the Dark Curse, even trying to kill Killian to separate himself from the Dagger – this too had been done for love. He had known that he was about to be consumed by the Darkness and that there would be no humanity left to temper the Dark One – so hence all the effort at finding The Author and rewriting history.

Perhaps if he had just rewritten his own history it would have worked, but he had to rewrite everyone. But if the Apprentice had not stepped in, without the re-write, he would have left the town at the mercy of the Dark One and that force would have truly risen and crushed them all. Gold knew that and hadn't wanted the ones he loved to be victims. Emma wondered if the Dark One would have sought out those that Gold had loved to destroy them – for they had thwarted the Darkness in its desire to consume Rumple, the poor cowardly spinner.

"Why?" Emma said again thinking over Viktor's question. "Because it's the right thing to do." She repeated what she had told the others with no hesitancy. She wanted to be there when he woke up.

 _Would he remember being the Dark One? Would he remember Belle, the death of his son, being Zelena's slave? Would he remember being Gold, the town monster? Would he become the poor spinner again? His situation was unprecedented._

 **That Same Evening . . .**

"What's going to happen now?" Henry asked his mom, Regina.

He, Regina and Robin were sitting in Regina's kitchen. Little Roland had long since been put to bed. They were all sitting around her table having a late night snack – each enjoying a piece of one of Regina's apple tarts and drinking some milk.

"Well, I guess we follow-up with the Apprentice's suggestion and try to figure out how to get to Merlin. We need to save Belle from being the Dark One and figure out some other way to stash the dark powers besides the dagger," she answered him.

"What if . . . what if she doesn't want to stop being the Dark One?" Henry asked. "I know Grandpa . . . he never . . . he had a hard time with the idea of giving up the Dark One's powers."

"You're right there," Regina agreed with him. "He would always choose his powers over everything, anything else."

"What if Belle's the same way? I mean . . . all of a sudden to be so powerful. That's got to be . . . pretty big." Robin asked this.

Regina considered. She couldn't imagine suddenly having so many powers. Hers had developed slowly with a lot of hard work. It would be a heady experience, abruptly being able to do pretty much anything you wanted to. Belle was a very level-headed individual, well, except for her infatuation with Rumple. She was realistic and practical. But becoming the Dark One. What would that feel like?

Regina remembered that there had been times she had envied Rumple the depth and breadth of his powers. He did so many things so effortlessly that took so much energy from herself.

 _What would Belle be feeling right now?_

 **Still That Evening . . .**

Belle was feeling fantastic.

She had immediately focused on getting the fuck out of the shop and away from all the would-be do-gooders. She had transported herself to the safest place she knew – Gold's Victorian. She had quickly placed wards around the house and increased the physical locks on the doors and windows. On a whim she'd had the rose bushes grow at a prodigious rate and, just for fun, she pushed them into full bloom - lovely red roses growing eight feet high and five feet thick all around the house, an impenetrable hedge of thorns and brambles.

Now she was resting comfortably in her old room, the one she'd used before she had married Rumple. She did a bit of re-decoration, making the carpet plusher, the bed cushier, the curtains velvetier, changing the little wooden chair in the corner into a comfy wingback with an ottoman. She sat down in it putting her feet up and summoned up some of Gold's top notch whiskey, a glass and a little side table (with a coaster). She began to consider her options. She probably should've taken Rumple with her. They would likely stash him away somewhere.

She snorted. Hell, it was also possible that they would just leave him on the shop floor, going back to their own little homes and their own little families and screw him. They had never cared about what was happening to him before – leaving him in Zelena's clutches for a year following the death of his beloved son.

But she didn't think that they would want her to get with him. No, no, they could not risk having the Dark One and the former Dark One becoming allies.

But Rumple would certainly be on her side.

Wouldn't he?

 _You are so much stronger than Rumple._

She heard the voice inside her head. It was melodic and soothing.

 _Yes, yes, Belle the Wonderful. Belle the Considerate. You are strong, very strong. Rumple was always weak, cowardly, never really wanting to use all the power that was available to him. He was weakened by his love for his son and for . . . herself._

Belle searched the fragments of memories that she recognized belonged to previous Dark Ones. She could name some of them. As she scanned these older memories, she realized something. So many of these former Dark Ones were idiots - power-hungry, arrogant idiots. They did not know how fragile their grasp on their autonomy was. They did not protect themselves and often ended up as slaves to other, lesser mortals. Even clever Rumple, clever, clever Rumple had eventually fallen. _But Belle was more clever than Rumple. Belle would not let anyone enslave her._

She saw a pattern among the Dark Ones' behaviors. They would often be so drunk on their own powers that they would quickly grow careless. Belle smiled. Yes, she would see one of the most common patterns, how the Dark Ones would often take beautiful women, willing or not, to their beds. These women would soon enough discover their weakness and would slay the Dark Ones as they rested following a good fuck. Yes, there were plenty of female Dark Ones in the long history, many of them were the former mistresses of their predecessors.

Rumple, she perceived, was one of the longest lived of the Dark Ones. He was clever, clever and had a remarkable gift for self-preservation. And he was careful, oh so careful. _But he was a disappointment. He could have ruled the world, had all creatures bowing before him, his pick of women. But instead he spent all that time furthering his knowledge, studying, gathering information so that he could create the Dark Curse._

It was a pretty impressive feat, even the Dark One had to admit this. Belle could see only some of the threads of the rich tapestry that Rumple had woven with this intensely intricate spell.

Oh, and somewhere along the line, Rumple had acquired the Seer's gift. But none of that gift had passed onto Belle. She was not able to foresee the future.

As Belle sat savoring the whiskey _(odd, she had never liked whiskey before),_ she also began to realize that her memory of things, of the Others, of the vast fund of knowledge that Rumple had gathered, all of this, was incomplete.

It was because he had not died. It was because the transfer of the Entity had not been straight-forward, so much of the information had not come into her. She was like one of the younger versions of the Dark One, still in its infancy, still lacking much, much knowledge.

She poured herself a second glass of whiskey.

They were going to try to find Merlin, weren't they? She wouldn't want them to do that. Merlin would be able to garner the Dark One and put it somewhere, somewhere where it would be neutered and useless. She would have to stop them from finding Merlin or, failing that, she would have to get to him first.

And she would have to kill him.

She sighed. Belle didn't like the idea of killing. Killing was icky. And . . . and . . . what was that other thing? Oh yes, killing was wrong, not wrong like turning down the corner of a page to keep your place in a book, but really, really wrong. She knew that. Yes, she knew that.

Rumple would know what to do. He'd walked the moral knife edge for longer than . . . anybody. He would know. She would definitely have to recruit Rumple to her side.

She smiled. That should be easy.

He loved her, right?

 **Late That Evening . . .**

Emma was still sitting on the first evening watch. Gold had been put into a hospital bed into a spacious private room with a singularly ugly brown lounger chair, a small fridge and a large television set. There was a closet and several drawers. Closed off by a door, there was also a small bathroom with a shower in one corner of the room. The floors were the hard, cold, ubiquitous dark green hospital tiles with small flecks of white floating in them. The walls were painted the pale mint green that was supposed to be relaxing but actually made a person feel nauseated. The room was filled with an artificial smell of betadine and chlorine bleach with just a hint of vomit. The lights, the lights were again the harsh florescents that had been down in the ER.

True to his word, once he had learned that Gold had been admitted, Killian had come by and brought Emma food, stopping by the cafeteria and making a selection from the meager choices that were still available, leftovers from the day's preparations, food that would be thrown out in the morning if not eaten by the truly hungry this night. He'd gotten the best of the choices, a couple of sandwiches, some yogurt and some iced tea.

"He doesn't look so threatening like this, does he?" he'd said to Emma standing at the foot of Gold's bed. The man was still hooked up to machines that monitored his heart, his blood pressure, his temperature and respiration. The man looked frail and small wrapped in the contraptions of twenty-first century medicine.

"Regina had found out that he'd been hospitalized in New York," Emma told him. "She told me that he'd had two heart attacks while he was there, one actually in the hospital when Zelena had visited him. They had barely pulled him through."

"All those years of bad deeds catching up with him," Killian told her.

"Perhaps, but Regina explained to me that it wasn't the Dark One that was dying. It was Rumplestiltskin. The Dark One was killing him. If Rumplestiltskin had died we would have been left with the monster, with no shred of humanity, of mercy."

Killian sniffed, "Not that the man had had much of those things to begin with."

"Killian," Emma chastised him gently, "as I hear it, you ran off with his wife, leaving him with a small child."

"Yeah. . . ." Killian shifted uncomfortably. "Milah and I . . . well, we were in love, really in love. She always regretted leaving her child behind. When Bae fell by my boat in Neverland, I took him in, kind of adopted him in Milah's memory. He was a likeable kid, much more likeable than his father."

"But you can understand why Gold was never too fond of you."

"I can. It's taken me a while to get there, but I . . . . I was not very nice to him," Killian confessed. "Right after Milah left him, he came to my ship and tried to get her back and I . . . I taunted him, challenged him to a sword fight."

"That wasn't very fair. The man was a cripple."

"Exactly. So, I admit, I wasn't the nicest person back then. I've grown. I've tried to change."

Emma leaned over and kissed him. "You have, darling. You have. You understand why I'm here?"

"Not really. But I understand you feel that you need to be."

"If for no other reason that this is my child's grandfather. He's family. Yes, I feel I need to be here."

Killian kept her company for a while, sharing some of the hospital's food that he brought up for her, but it was very boring work. There was no change in Gold's condition. It was after eleven when Killian finally gave her a hug and a quick kiss and left.

Emma kept the room in somber half-light. It didn't seem quite appropriate to have the bright artificial lights of the hospital filling the space, not that they were cheerful or anything – just bright. Emma washed her face off and used her finger to brush her teeth. She then settled in on the lounger that was in the room, huddled under a thin hospital blanket. Exhausted, she felt into a deep slumber.

 **Much Later That Night . . .**

The room was dark with only the lights of the machines winking their pinpoint lights, red and yellow, on and off, on and off – quiet with only the soft humming of the same machines. Occasionally the shadow of one of the nursing staff would flit by the door.

Asleep, Emma missed her when she arrived, stepping out of the dark shadows of the room. The figure was slight, dressed in liquid black silk which draped her petite figure and swirled silently as she moved. Her hair was long and black and curling at the ends. She moved silently and quickly, stopping at the side of Rumple's bed.

"Darling," she cooed to him. "Still sleeping, I see." She bent over and kissed him directly on the lips. "Soon, my love. Soon."

Down at the nurse's station, a bored nurse was watching a re-run of _Fairytale Theater_ on late night television and missed the spike in Mr. Gold's heartbeat.

 _NEXT: Emma and others try to figure out why Mr. Gold is not waking up from his coma_

 _Belle begins the search for a way to Camelot_


	2. Awakening

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter Two**

 **Awakening**

 _At first there was nothing but quiet calm._

 _Darkness without light. A floating, buoyant tranquility. Everlasting peacefulness._

 _Like death._

 _Only better._

 _He did not know how long he lay in stasis, resting, at long last resting, all cares faded to oblivion, all pressures of everyday life gone, all worries ceased._

 _He remembered . . . something. Something soft . . . Soft and soothing, a white light spearing the darkness, a bubble of clarity bursting all around him, bringing. . . joy . . . hope. . . love._

 **Beginning Early the Next Morning**

Regina, dressed splendidly in a black and white checkered blouse and sleek black leather pencil skirt, came by early the next morning. She was topped off with a red jacket and completed her outfit with pointed-toed red patent leather high heels. Her hair was shining and bouncing and her skin was glowing. She looked beautiful. "How is he?" she asked.

Emma shrugged. She'd spent an uncomfortable restless night with strange threatening dreams, now forgotten in substance but lingering in emotional toll. She wasn't feeling her best. She knew her shirt was wrinkled and her hair was lank and stringy. _No one would ever believe I'm a fairyland princess, she'd told herself when she'd looked in the bathroom mirror earlier that morning._ "Seems about the same, but he's beginning to move about some, fidgeting and twitching." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Any word about Belle?"

Regina was standing by Gold's bed looking him over, looking at the equipment he was connected to as if she understood it all. She sighed, "No, but of course no one's gone looking for her. She could be right under our noses and we could miss her."

"What do you think she's going to do?"

"Don't know. I've asked Blue to come by this afternoon and give us all a mini-lesson in the history of the Dark Ones to see if we might be able to predict her next move. My guess is that she is going to be trying to figure out how to get to Camelot so she can take out Merlin," Regina speculated.

"I thought that usually the Dark Ones started off doing good deeds." Emma knew she was in over her head on this topic. What she did know had come mostly from what Henry and Neal had told her, and it wasn't much.

"Some do and some don't. I know Rumple stopped the Ogre Wars that had been going on for more than a hundred years and saved the children that had been recruited to fight them."

Emma nodded. "But Neal told me that his father killed one of the soldiers that had humiliated him as one of his first acts. I am curious. Will Belle become all deal-making Belle like Gold used to be?"

"Don't know. Remember, he's been the only Dark One for my entire life. I've never known another one. I don't know if they're all alike or if each one is different."

Emma nodded. "I had that meeting with Rumplestiltskin in the past and he was pretty over the top in his clothes and his gestures and . . . well, everything. Was that Rumplestiltskin or the Dark One?"

Regina smiled. "Probably some of both. I know that Rumple was an impoverished peasant before taking on The Curse and probably relished the trappings of wealth. He always went first class. Gold is a . . . somewhat subdued, sophisticated version of Rumplestiltskin."

"I can't picture Belle showing up wearing leather and making hand gestures." Emma was trying her best to imagine Belle in Dark One mode.

"We'll see. I'm thinking she'll be more like Lacey than Belle," Regina told her.

"A hard-drinking pool-playing tart?"

"Lacey was her alter-ego, the darkest side of her that we've seen so far. You know the woman has to have something of a dark side if she was ever drawn romantically to Rumple." Regina was shaking her head as she idly handled some of the tubes that were connected to Gold.

Emma looked at her. "Were you? Were you ever drawn romantically to Rumple?"

Regina dropped her eyes. "He was very powerful and power is an aphrodisiac in its own right. And he could be . . . very charming. But I never really thought he was interested in women . . . or men for that matter. I knew that he and my mother had been in a relationship, that they had likely . . . been . . . done . . . they had . . ."

"Screwed each others brains out," supplied Emma.

Regina nodded, "Right. Much of the time he treated me more like a daughter. Sometimes, I'd even wondered if he might actually be . . ."

"Oh god, did you think he might be your father?!" Emma interrupted.

"I did for a while, at least I wondered, but when I did the math, unless my mother was still seeing Rumple after her marriage then, no," Regina answered.

"But knowing your mother, she could have been seeing him," Emma said, but then added thoughtfully, "Of course, I don't think he would have treated a daughter like he treated you - grooming you to take revenge and cast his Dark Curse – seems kind of cold."

"I think you're right. If I had been his daughter, I'd like to think that he would have taken me away from my mother." Regina stood looking down at Gold, who had just kept up a steady breathing pace. "How about you? Were you ever drawn to him?" she asked the Savior.

Emma screwed up her face. "He was the most irritating, arrogant man I'd met in a long time. You're right though, power is an aphrodisiac and he could be charming. There might have been those few moments when he was being nice to me that I . . . Oh shit, who am I kidding? A well-dressed wealthy man. He was pretty hot. If I'd thought for a moment that he'd been interested in me – I might have given him a tumble. Well . . . maybe."

Regina smiled. "You _are_ tired. Go home, get some rest," she told her. "I'll stand watch over him and call you if there's a crisis or any big change in his status."

Emma sniffed and nodded in agreement. She left Regina alone in the hospital room with the comatose ex-sorcerer, leaving Regina to take up the vigil. She would guard Gold, look out for would-be assassins and those who might otherwise harm the helpless mage, watch the nursing staff, and even go with him when he was taken from the room for more medical tests.

Viktor came in around eleven to tell Regina that none of the additional medical tests found anything wrong. There was nothing physically awry that he could find.

"How long has he had his eyes opened?" he asked Regina.

"What?!"

"I take it this is a new behavior," Viktor judged by her reaction. "It's a very good sign. I feel more than ever, after this latest round of tests, that his condition is magical in origin."

She had to agree. "It's like magical shock," she said to herself.

"Anything similar to a sleeping curse?" he asked her exhausting his knowledge of spells that left a person in a coma.

"I'm hardly the authority on sleeping curses. I'll have to give Malificent a call." After Viktor left, Regina did just that and was gratified that Malificent agreed to drop by that afternoon. Meanwhile, Regina was pleasantly surprised by Robin coming by with a hamburger lunch from Granny's.

"I didn't want to leave you to the mercy of hospital food," Robin told her. As always he was in a good mood and buoyed her spirits. _Even if he'd been in a bad mood, he would have buoyed her spirits – just seeing him made her feel better._

"Where's Roland?" she asked as she took a bite of the burger.

"Left him with Henry at the house. I didn't think this would be a good place to take him," Robin shared.

"I agree. No one's heard anything on Belle, I suppose?"

"Not a thing. How is it going with him?" he asked.

"No real change except his eyes opened earlier. He just lays there and breathes and stares out. He does have some reflexive responses and Dr. Whale assures me that his brain is fine, but he's just not really waking up." Regina took another bite of her burger and chewed it up. "We haven't heard anything about finding a way to Camelot, have we? I know Henry has been researching it."

"Nothing," Robin replied.

"This is where we miss Belle, really miss her. She had a gift for finding this type of thing out."

"She could well be doing her own research," Robin suggested.

"I suspect she is," Regina agreed. "And that's not good. If she finds a way first . . . and takes down Merlin then we could be stuck with always having a Dark One."

"Do you think she'll be that bad, that dark . . . as a Dark One?" Robin asked. "She's such a nice lady."

"It's hard to say. The evilness that takes a hold of the possessed one is so total, much of what is seen is that entity, the Darkness. It provides so much power that the possessed one feels they can do anything, which is pretty heady. Even the kindest, nicest person with the purest of motives would get corrupted by all that power."

"Maybe we'll have a little while before the corruption takes hold?" Robin suggested doubtfully.

"Maybe."

They finished their lunches and Robin, kissing her soundly, went back to the house to their two boys.

Malificent came by around two, dressed in a dark purple pant suit. Her hair perfectly coiffed, she could have passed for a killer corporate attorney. She stood a moment examining the man who'd been the most powerful sorcerer of the land for three hundred years. He gazed at her with no recognition. "It's not a spell at all, at least not one I'm familiar with. I'm seeing a lot of lines around him that are associated with spiritual healing. You'll need to get the Blue Fairy here. This is her area of expertise."

"She's coming here later today. I'll certainly have her look him over," Regina promised.

Malificent ran her fingers through his hair, almost like she was petting him. "He certainly looks different, doesn't he? I remember the first time I met him. Not a very big man, but the power just rolled off of him in waves. And he swaggered and gestured and I was quite taken in by him."

Regina looked at her old friend. "You've known him probably longer than anyone except Hook and Blue, haven't you?"

Malificent considered. "I guess so. He had already settled into the Dark Castle when I met him. I was in a bad place when we first met. I was all alone in the world and he took me in." Mallie gave her a wistful smile. "I was probably one of Rumple's first 'girls.' He gave me the job of keeping his place clean, wanted me to cook for him, clean for him, launder his clothes. You know the routine." She laughed, "I didn't know how to do any of those things. But I learned and, in return, he helped me get control of my magic. He was especially helpful teaching me how to manage the change into a dragon. He was fascinated by that particular talent of mine."

Regina licked her lips and slowly asked, "Malificent, I'd like to know. Any chance that Rumple is Lily's . . . ?"

Malificent looked at Regina and smiled. "Rumple and I . . . well, at that time I was in love with him, of course, you can understand that. But after he had learned everything he could from me, he was ready to move on. He helped me find a new place and new friends and scooted me on out of his castle. We did keep in touch but we never were . . . _that_ close, even in dragon form."

"Wait a minute, Rumple can change himself into a dragon?" Regina asked surprised, _now why should she be surprised?_

"Well," Malificent looked him over. "He could at one point – a magnificent big green-gold fellow. Doubt if he can change himself into a fresh pair of pants right now."

 **That Same Afternoon**

Belle had been sitting in Rumple's library on the second floor. The room had heavy burgundy damask curtains and a dark grey and burgundy oriental carpet. There were several small polished tables set around as well as several paisley tapestry covered comfortable chairs. His spinning wheel was set in one corner. It had been one of her favorite places anywhere and she and Rumple had spent many lovely hours in the room.

She stretched. She had looked at herself in the mirror and there were no scales, no reptilian eye slits, no claws. Her skin was perhaps paler. She'd made her hair a bit longer, had turned it black but kept her curls. Her eyes were still bright blue. It was a look she liked. She had chosen luxurious silks over the leathers that Rumple had preferred and had selected black and sapphire blue colors layered over each other for her soft, draping garments. No ruffles or lace (not for the Dark One, please), but she had added a bit of fringe to the bottom of one of the garments; it twisted back and forth as she walked. High heeled laced-up black boots to finish off the outfit and to add some height she had decided. Yes, her clothing made a nice feminine contrast to Rumple's rock star leathers and feathers.

She liked how she felt, strong and powerful. No wonder Rumple had been reluctant to give it all up. No aches, no pains, she could get used to this. And the power. She could sense it whirling just beneath the surface, at the ready should she need it. She could get drunk on the power.

But there was an immediate need.

She had been going through Rumple's private library, the magic books that he kept put away from everyone, even her. They had been kept in a tall cabinet, a locked door protecting them from the casual browser and blood magic protecting them from the committed reader. For anyone else the books would have been unattainable, but Belle had the Dagger and it had been stained with his blood on several occasions. It was easy enough to pull off some of his blood, ignoring all the other blood that was embedded in the instrument ( _so much blood_ ). She then smeared it on her fingertip and opened the lock. She began going through the volumes, one tome at a time. It was lengthy, painstaking work as many of the books were fragile, handwritten and not a one had a bloody index. Fortunately, she had found that she did not need sleep _or food for that matter_ and had been up most of the night slowly going through the bottom shelf.

It was like putting together a puzzle when you didn't know what the picture looked like and you had extra pieces which didn't fit and, perhaps, you didn't have all the pieces you really needed. She wasn't quite sure what she was looking for: Camelot, Merlin, portals, passageways, dimension travel, realm jumping.

That reminded her. Perhaps there was someone she could ask. She hadn't seen him in a while but she certainly knew where he lived.

She materialized outside of his house. _Nice, this ability to instantaneous appear where you wanted to go._ She decided she would obey social dictates and knocked on the door. No need to scare the man.

Jefferson, more relaxed than she had seen him in a while, answered the door. "Belle? You look different. A . . . a good look. Can I help you? Is Rumple in trouble?"

"Rumple is fine," she lied smoothly. "He did want me to check with you to see if you could help with a . . . a little question that has come up."

"Sure. Come on in," and he stepped aside. Belle remembered that she and Jefferson had always been comfortably pleasant around each other. Jefferson would often tease Rumple about his relationship with his pretty maid with Rumple always puffing up and denying that there was any relationship. Jefferson would often bring her little gifts and scold Rumple for working her too hard. She would fix them both tea and hang back while they talked of politics and magical affairs. Jefferson would continue to flirt with her until Rumple would become jealous and wave her off to another room to work . . . or read . . . or whatever it was that she did.

Yes, she remembered that she had liked Jefferson.

"Rumple wants to know if there's a way to get to Camelot," she told him.

Jefferson thought a moment. "Not much there after the Great War so long ago. Magic went wild and unpredictable."

"He wanted to consult with Merlin," Belle expanded.

"Well, Merlin is likely still around. Last I'd heard, he'd retired to a tower citadel and used mirrors, crystal balls, viewing basins and such to keep an eye on other realms. It might be easier to get in touch with him using one of those means rather than trying to go to Camelot."

"No, that won't do. He wants to see Merlin in person."

Jefferson shrugged. "All right. I'll have to do some research. My hat has become too unpredictable for him to borrow to use. He could end up in Narnia or Hogwarts or Shea Stadium using my hat. I've tried a couple of jaunts with it but it seems to be functioning purely randomly."

Jefferson had gotten up to look through some of his own books. "We're out of magical beans – that might have worked. No easily available unusual weather phenomena, like tornadoes. No other clothing around that might do it, no other hats, no shoes that jump realms. No magical furniture – no beds, wardrobes, backs of closets, carpets, or mirrors or such. No random portals, like rabbit holes, oddly numbered train platforms, wells, stargates, wormholes, warp-pipes, oddly shaped trees and certainly no hallway with a number of doors that open up to different dimensions. Belle, if he wants to go to another dimension, I think we're pretty well screwed here."

She managed to smile brightly at him. She touched his arm and leaned over to him. "You will tell me if anything occurs to you, won't you?" she purred at him.

Jefferson abruptly felt uncomfortable. "I . . . I . . . uh, yeah, sure. I'll give you or Rumple a call."

"You must remember to call _me_. Uh . . . Rumple's busy with some . . . other aspects of this project. Understand? You are to call me," she said to him with just a hint of steel in her voice.

"Sure. If I come across anything or remember anything, I'll call you."

"Lovely," and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You were always a friend," she said and let herself out.

Jefferson sat a moment, thoroughly bewildered. Then he made a call.

 **Late Afternoon**

It was late in the afternoon and light pushed its way into the hospital room finding cracks in the blinds, the sunshine seemingly determined to impart some cheer into the place. Malificent was still there, along with Regina and Emma, who had just come in to relieve Regina.

There was a timid knock on the door.

"Blue?" Emma had to look to see who was standing to one side of the door.

"May I come in?" the fairy-now-nun asked.

"Oh, please come in," Emma told her. She had always gotten along fine with the fairies, but was well aware of the brutal history between the Fae and Rumple. Emma was quite mindful that only recently the man had relegated the entire lot to the interior that weird magical hat so that he could steal their energies in the attempt to sever himself from the control of the Dark One. Of course, he had also tried to put her in the hat but she had managed to walk away.

But it had been a close one.

"We really appreciate you coming," she told Blue honestly.

"Of course, dear. How is he?"

Emma continued, "You can see. This is pretty much how he's been since we brought him in last night. After the heart cleansing he went into a coma. His eyes opened this morning. Dr. Whale has said there's nothing physically wrong with him. Regina thought it might be some kind of magical shock and recommended Malificent have a look at him."

"I looked at him and didn't see anything that suggested any type of a sleeping spell," Malificent shared her observations. "I can see lines that look like they might be a healing spell. I thought you might could help."

Blue nodded. She looked over her old enemy who lay without flinching as she examined him. Cautiously, Blue reached out and touched his chest. He looked at her hand but there was no other reaction from the man.

"Interesting," Blue said. "There are lines of healing coming out from his heart. They are covering his body, strong, powerful. They are running inside his body and all around the outside and there are even some about an inch away from his body."

"Healing lines? So Malificent was correct? He's healing himself?" Regina asked.

"In a way. These won't heal his physical ills but will address other . . . deficits."

"So that would mean it's only a matter of time before . . . he's all well?" Emma speculated.

Blue looked at the other women. "Emma, I don't know if he'll be 'all well,'" she spoke cautiously. "His spirit may be healed. But if he'll be back to the spinner he once was before. . . before the Darkness took him? Or if he'll be Mr. Gold with no magical powers or . . . what. I don't know. No one afflicted with this particular curse has ever been 'cured.' I don't know what, how, he'll be."

"I know. He might not know any of us." Regina told the older woman.

"Ladies, I am concerned. He has many, many enemies." Blue stated the obvious.

"Are you one of them?" Emma asked her directly.

"No. I have never been his enemy, although he has always believed I was."

"Blue," Emma began hesitantly. "What will Belle be like as the Dark One? What should we expect?"

Blue didn't respond right away. "Each Dark One is different and yet they are the same. They have all been a law unto themselves and, of course, they're very, very powerful. Most did not make any effort to understand their powers. That was what made Rumplestiltskin so very, very dangerous. He studied and expanded on the Dark One's talents. Adding the Seer's powers . . ."

"The what powers?" Emma asked.

"He absorbed the powers of a being that was able to see the future. A great power in and of itself. Added to a long life and a singular purpose, Rumplestiltskin became a force like we had never seen before."

"Will Belle have the Seer's powers?" Emma asked.

"I don't know. Somehow I doubt it. They are separate from the Dark One's. And I wonder, because the transfer of powers was not . . . traditional, Belle may have only limited Dark Powers, limited Dark Knowledge. Nevertheless, I would still expect that Belle as the Dark One will exhibit her deepest, most secret desires, her darkest desires, desires that she may not have even been aware of."

"So like, she'll use a highlighter in a reference book?" Regina suggested.

Blue had the grace to smile. "No doubt. Rumple's in the greatest danger from her. She's likely to come after him, to bind him to her side."

"So, do you know any way to get to Camelot?" Emma asked her.

Blue considered. "My people originally came from Camelot many, many years ago. We came through a portal that Merlin drew for us."

"The Apprentice drew portals," Regina remembered. "Perhaps there is something in his home that could help."

Blue nodded. "It's a place to start."

Regina agreed. "I'll go search it tonight," she promised.

"I'll go with you," Malificent said. "I somehow feel that Camelot may be the answer to finding Lily's father."

"Well, I'd like to go, but I'll trust you two to do a good job," Emma told them¸ still obviously disappointed that she wasn't going to be able to participate, not if she was going to keep watch on Gold. However they all agreed that Gold was too important (they were counting on him to help get them to Camelot if they couldn't figure out a route themselves) and certainly too vulnerable to be left unguarded. Emma also realized that Belle would likely not take things well if anything happened to Gold (Gold, as the Dark One, had threatened to kill the town if anything happened to Belle on at least one occasion).

The other three women departed, leaving Emma with Gold duty.

It was later when Killian brought her supper again. This time he had gone by Granny's and gotten some lasagna for them to split.

"How is the old crocodile doing?" Kilian asked her.

"Well, as you can see he's opened his eyes and sometimes he seems to be looking at us or following movements but he's still not said anything."

Killian had gotten up and was looking down at Gold. "This used to be the most feared, most powerful being in the Enchanted Forest."

"He was pretty feared and pretty powerful here in Storybrooke," Emma remarked.

"If he wakes up, I wonder what he'll remember," Killian mused.

"No one can say. We've talked about the different possibilities - that he remembers everything or he only has Gold's memories or he only has Rumplestiltskin's memories."

Killian considered. "I don't know if I were in his shoes if I'd want to remember everything or if I'd want to forget part or even all of my past."

"I'm sure he wouldn't want to forget his son or Belle, but I know he's like to forget Zelena," Emma told him.

"Well, we all would," Killian concurred.

Later, Killian kissed Emma goodnight and reminded her to call him if he could help her in any way.

Emma stood by Gold's bedside looking into the man's whiskey colored eyes. His gaze was steady, without device or duplicity . . . almost innocent.

"I wonder if you'll remember who any of us are." Emma playfully spoke to him, "Hell-oo-oo, my name is Emma Swan."

Gold blinked and took a sharp intake of air. "Emma," he said. "What a lovely name."

 **Thank you to all who are following, favoriting and, especially, sending me lovely reviews: Wondermorena, Drac1026, Grace5231973, ladybugsmomma, MyraValhallah, juju0268, Robin4, deweymay, Erik'sTrueAngel, orthankg1, and freddiegirl**

 _NEXT: Gold is_ _grumpy_ _  
_

 _Regina and Malificent find a variety of things to write with at the Apprentice's cottage_

 _Belle comes to see Gold_


	3. Remembering

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 3**

 **Remembering**

Jefferson tried to get in touch with Emma but missed her. Whether she was out of range, her phone turned off or she was just not answering, he wasn't sure. He didn't leave a message.

He sat down in his kitchen.

 _Belle had been different, really different, really, really different._

He had always liked Rumplestiltskin's little maid, would have coveted her for himself if he'd thought for a single instance that Rumple would have stood for it. He had recognized early on that Rumple had deep, deep feelings for the young woman. And, truth be told, he had been glad for his friend. It had been nice, comforting, to believe that his old friend could be capable of . . . dare he think it . . . love.

One particular conversation bubbled up in his memory.

 _He'd been visiting the Dark Castle on some of Rumplestiltskin's business. Belle had served them tea and a really good raspberry crumb cake and had then stood by in case they needed anything else. She fussed over Rumple, making sure he had the biggest piece of crumb cake, that his napkin was within easy reach, that his tea was served just the way he liked it. As she flitted about them, fussing over Rumple, the crotchety sorcerer had become increasingly exasperated and waved her off, ordering her to go and do whatever it was she did. She had smiled at him and left them. But then Rumple had continued to complain about her after she had left, how she was always getting into his stuff and making him special treats and watching him, watching him all the time._

" _She's not afraid of you," Jefferson had said to the mage that afternoon._

" _Of course she is," Rumplestiltskin had scoffed. "Everyone's afraid of me."_

" _She's not," Jefferson had insisted. "And that, dear friend, should make you afraid."_

 _Rumplestiltskin had looked at him with no understanding._

" _She's sees something in you, the man behind the monster, perhaps."_

" _You're imagining things," Rumplestiltskin had told him. "She'll get tired of working here soon enough and will grab some of my gold and run away. . . . like they all do."_

 _Jefferson had smiled at him. "No she won't. She cares about you. That's why she's not afraid."_

The Belle that came to see him this afternoon was not _that_ Belle. She was very different. Not Belle, not Lacey, someone else.

He had never been afraid of Belle before, but something. . . something wasn't right.

He knew something was going on.

 _It was quite a dilemma because he knew very well a way to get to Camelot._

 **At the Hospital That Evening**

"Mr. Gold," Emma called excitedly. "Do you remember me?"

He looked at her puzzled. "Yes. Yes. You're the . . . Savior, Emma Swan." He looked around clearly confused. "I'm in the hospital? What? Am I sick?" He struggled to sit up in the bed.

"Yes. You were in a coma. We had you brought here and Regina and I have been keeping a watch over you."

"You and Regina?" he responded now obviously confused (and disbelieving).

"Have you forgotten anything?"

Gold glared at her. "You want me to remember if I've forgotten anything?"

"Okay, good point," Emma had to agree. "What do you remember?"

He looked at her, looked around and answered acerbically, "I'm not one hundred percent on this, but I'm pretty sure that I usually wear pants."

Emma realized her question was poorly worded. "What's the last thing you remember?"

He looked down for a moment. "I was in my shop. I was . . . I was dying." He looked up at her.

"All right then. You're pretty well up to date."

"I don't know what happened after that. How is it that I'm still alive?" he asked slowly.

"The Apprentice cleansed your heart," Emma began.

Gold touched his chest but made no further movement.

Emma continued, "Afterwards, you slipped into a coma. We couldn't very well leave you on the floor of your shop."

"You've done worse," he told her sharply.

"Well, we stepped up this time, okay," Emma told him, speaking a bit sharply herself. "Now I need to make some calls to let people know that you're all right. Hang tough for me." She stepped out to make the calls.

Despite the late hour, Emma called Regina who was still searching the Apprentice's house. While Emma was on the phone, Gold was cautiously sitting up and swinging around to sit on the side of his bed. He attempted to stand but quickly realized that his leg wouldn't hold him. The old injury was back. He held out his hand and concentrated on his healing energies.

Nothing happened.

He closed his eyes and sat back down on the bed.

He next tried to conjure a fireball, the simplest of magics for the Fire Demon energies of the Dark One.

Nothing happened.

 _Shit! he thought. His powers were gone. He was now a cripple in more ways than one. Apparently the Apprentice had saved Rumplestiltskin, somehow cleansing him of the Dagger Curse, but had taken all the Dark One's powers with the cleansing._

 _That was exactly what he had hoped to avoid._

 _It was a fucking nightmare._

 _Now he was at the mercy of the townspeople, of so many magical creatures, of all his enemies. As the Dark One he had cut quite a swath and now, what was the phrase? His chickens had come home to roost._

Emma was off the phone and had come back in. He looked at her. "Do I need to spend the night in this damn place?" he asked. "I feel like I'm fine and should be able to go home."

Emma was unsure of what to tell him. "I guess we could call Viktor and see what he thinks. Let me go out and get one of the nurses on it," she told him and ducked out again.

He saw that he still had IV's hooked up and, wincing, pulled them out of his arm. He gritted his teeth and pulled out the catheter _degrading piece of equipment but better, he guessed, than allowing him to lie in his own wastes_. The rest of the tubing and lines ended up in a pile on the bed. _Where the hell were his clothes? He couldn't very well go out in this hospital gown with his arse hanging out._

He spotted a closet and using the IV pole as a crutch he limped over and opened it. Nice, neat and tidy, his suit was hanging up and his socks and underwear were folded on a shelf. His shoes were sitting in the bottom of the closet. He pulled his clothes out and by the time Emma returned he was back sitting on the bed. He'd pulled on his underwear and his pants. He was busy putting on his shirt.

"Oh," Emma said when she saw him. "They are sending a nurse to get out the IV . . . and other stuff, but . . . I see that you've already taken care of that." She watched as he buttoned his shirt. He didn't bother putting on his tie, just draping it around his neck. He leaned over and pulled on his socks and then slipped on his shoes. "They've called Viktor but my guess is you may be ready to go before he can get here."

"Can you give me a ride?" he asked her. "If not, I can make other arrangements."

"I can give you a ride," she told him as he pulled on his vest leaving it open. Then he shrugged on his jacket.

"I'm going to need a cane. My knee seems to be giving me some problem," he told her _the confession costing him in bitterness_.

"Well, I'll see what I can do," she told him kindly and left him alone again.

He waited on the edge of the bed. _His last memory really was sitting in his shop, feeling his heart about to give out on him – terrified that the Dark One would then be free to do whatever it wanted without constraints, without conscience, without regard to consequences. Belle would have been left in great danger for, at last, the Dark One would have been free to act on its perverse, possessive desires towards her; he would likely collared her and kept her on a leash. As for the town Storybrooke and its inhabitants, the Dark One had always seen them as pests and they would probably have been pounded into dust. The Savior would have been a particular target for the Dark One – her very lightness of spirit would have attracted the dark energies and provided it hours of entertainment._

 _Where was Belle?_

 _He would have thought she would've been at the hospital but Emma hadn't mentioned her. Maybe she was home. Maybe she had moved out. Maybe she was with Will._

 _Her name slipped out in a whisper, "Belle" and he closed his eyes against the pain._

 _She had told him that she was in love with him – and not Will. Maybe she was just telling a dying man something she thought he'd want to hear._

Emma came back in the room pushing a wheelchair. "No canes available, but I can drive you down to your shop and get a cane for you from there."

"I have a couple of canes at my house. Just take me there."

Emma sighed and shrugged. "All right. I've told the nurses that you're checking yourself out. They know where to send the bill. Come on."

Gold gingerly slipped off the edge of the bed and got himself turned around to sit down on the chair. Emma began pushing him out of the room.

 _He so much wanted to ask where Belle was but wasn't going to humble himself, like he was there, hat in hand, begging for information about his estranged wife._

 **At That Moment Across Town**

Belle sensed him. She felt him call her name.

He was awake.

And he was coming home.

 _Delightful._

 **But a Little Earlier That Evening**

"Damn, I'd always thought Rumple was a packrat," Malificent said as they sifted through papers and books and stuff. "This guy makes him look organized."

"Maybe it's something that male sorcerers do," guessed Regina. "Although my mother was pretty messy, in more ways than one."

They had been sorting through things in the dusty little cottage for more than an hour. Malificent was becoming increasing frustrated and disgusted. "It would help if we had a clue as to what we were looking for," she said.

"Something to draw a portal with," Regina reminded her. She was gathering up anything that might be used to draw: chalk, pens, pencils, sticks, essentially anything longer than it was wide. At Malificent's questioning look she explained, "We'll take these back and try them out."

At that moment Regina's cell phone rang. "Yeah?" she answered. Malificent heard one side of the conversation. "He's awake. . . . . and up . . . . you think he's going to want to go home? . . . . Well, would you be taking him home then? . . . . Does he know you're going to stay with him? . . . Well that should be fun when he finds out . . . . Has he asked about Belle? . . . . Yeah, that should be fun too. . . No, we're about finished here. I'm heading home in just a moment. . . Sure . . . well good luck with him. Call me if you need any help talking some sense into him."

Malificent raised her eyebrows. "So he's awake, returning home and doesn't have a clue about Belle. Almost feel sorry for the guy. How's he going to take finding out that his precious little girlfriend has become the new Dark One?"

"Oh, she's not his girlfriend. She's actually his wife," Regina corrected her friend.

"Get Out! She landed the Dark One?! Wonder what kind of sex magic she used to accomplish that."

"Hold onto your false eyelashes girl, but, and understand I'm hardly one of Belle's confidants, but I do believe she was a virgin when she took her vows," Regina gossiped.

"A virgin?! They still make those? Well, that is one way to go, I suppose. Do you think she loved him?"

"I think so. He always treated her rather special."

"Wait a minute. You're saying that he loved her?" Malificent shook her head. "I always knew there were feelings there but I thought it was more like his 'does not share well with others' mentality."

Regina agreed, "There's that too."

"Now I'd also heard that she was the one that kicked his fine ass out of town?" Malificent was confused.

"Yeah," Regina agreed. "She did. Considered divorcing him while he was away but never bothered filing the paper work."

"Interesting. Do we have any ideas of where she's gone? She's keeping a low profile for a Dark One."

"No idea where she is," Regina said. "But I suspect Rumple has more to fear from her than anyone else."

"Probably, unless she really doesn't care about him." Malificent looked around. "Well, I think you're right, we've done enough for tonight and it's time to go home. You've got that collection of markers and such?"

"Yeah, I'll put them in the kitchen. I thought that tomorrow I'd start trying to draw portals. Emma will need to try and perhaps even Lily to see if we can get any of them to work," Regina shared and the two women left the cottage.

"I'll talk with her," Malificent promised. The two women stood outside by their respective vehicles.

"How is she?" Regina asked her oldest friend about her estranged adult child.

"Probably as well as could be expected. Her childhood was stolen from her. Her free will was thwarted. She believes she is doomed to make bad choices until we can give her some balance. And she's right. I'm just trying to be her friend and, when she allows me, her mother."

"How's that working?"

"Not good. We have no basis for a relationship except for our dragon time. We do try to fly together every day."

"Sweet."

"How about you and Robin?" Malificent asked.

"A day at a time. I certainly don't hold him to blame for getting my sister pregnant and I will welcome his baby as I have welcomed Roland."

"And Zelena. How is it going with her?"

"We have her in Pan's Cuff. It's a device that dampens out magic. We found one in Rumple's shop. She's no more dangerous than any other non-magical human – which is to say . . ."

"She's still pretty dangerous then," Malificent finished the thought.

 **In the Car That Evening**

Emma glanced at the subdued Gold. He was as unkempt as she had ever seen him, with his vest opened, his tie hanging, his shirt left open at the top, his hair uncombed. He was unshaven and she could see there was grey on his chin and cheeks. He looked tired . . . hell, he looked exhausted.

He hadn't asked about Belle. It was the five hundred pound elephant in the car with them. Well, she wasn't going to bring it up. It would come out soon enough.

They pulled up to the Victorian . . . or where the Victorian had stood. Gold and Emma both sat agape at the huge hedge that grew obscuring any view of the house. Even in the twilight, Emma could see there were large, dark roses growing amid the brambles.

"What the hell happened with my house?" he demanded.

"Well, no one was living in it and you were gone for awhile and you know how it is. You aren't there to do the routine yard work and it can get away from you. . . " she began with a pale explanation and trailed off.

Gold had opened the door of the yellow bug and, using it as a crutch, had managed to pull himself to a standing position. He managed a few staggered steps over to the hedge.

"This isn't natural," he said shaking his head.

"Well, maybe somebody did it as a joke?" she suggested.

He looked at the hedge. "No, this is no joke. There is something not natural . . . something clearly magical about this. How long was I in a coma?"

"About two days Storybrooke time," she told him.

"You sure? We haven't been in some kind of time warp and been doing the same crap over and over for thirty fuckin' years again?"

Emma just smiled at him and answered with just a touch of weariness in her voice, "Pretty sure. You want me to try to make you a path?" She conjured a small fireball.

He scowled. "With your control, you're just as likely to set my house on fire. I'm thinking something more mundane . . . like a chain saw. Take me back to the hardware store."

"Listen, I'm not your chauffeur," she began still holding onto the fireball. He glared at her and she capitulated, extinguishing the fireball, "All right, it's not like I've got anything better to do," and she got back in the car. As they did a u-turn in the street she corrected herself. "Actually I _do_ have something better to do. I could be home smooching with my sweetie."

"Please, Miss Swan. I've just gotten out of the hospital. I've had nothing solid to eat. My house has been eaten by a rose bush. I don't need to hear about your plans to swap saliva with the pirate."

"Hey, I'd be getting felt up too."

Gold glowered at her from his seat in the little Volkswagen. "How do you manage in this car?" he asked her. "There's no foot room."

"You want to start walking?" she asked him.

He huffed and sat back.

Once they got to the hardware store, Gold limped out of the vehicle to stand by the car. He realized that he would create a scene if he had to lean on Emma to get into the store or, worse, if he hopped in. _H_ _e certainly wasn't going to get into one of those little electric carts._

"Emma," he called out to her, a bit sharply. She stopped and turned.

"Please, Miss Swan," he tempered his voice and gestured her over to him. "Please," he bit out.

Emma could almost feel sorry for the guy. "Can I go buy you a cane and bring it out to you?"

He favored her with a smile. "Please."

She came back out with silver metal cane, nothing like his favorite mahogany cane with the gold plated handle. He examined in, sighed and went into the store.

Loaded up with several items in the back seat of Emma's VW, they were soon back at his house. They sat in the car looking at the thick wall of brambles. The sky was now completely dark offering only limited light from a few stars.

"You know it's much too dark to use a chain saw even if I provide you some lighting," she told him.

Gold looked out at the hedge. It was after nine o'clock and quite dark. He was clearly torn. _What do do? What to do? He knew what he wanted to do. But he also knew what he would be able to do . . . in the dark, with a bum knee, wielding a chainsaw – not much._ "All right then. Take me back to my shop. I'll need you to come and get me in the morning and we can tackle this hedge," he told her.

"Listen Gold. Regina and I both are concerned that . . . you're in some danger. You're kinda vulnerable now. Why don't we get you a late supper from Granny's and then take you over to Regina's. Let me call and see if she can put you up for the night. She's got that big house and there's plenty of room. She's got a whole little apartment above her garage. It would be perfect."

"What?! Why would you think I'm in some danger? From who?"

"You're kidding right?" she asked him. "You haven't been able to heal yourself so that screams, 'No Powers!' Your enemies are going to be coming out of the woodwork to get you and I suspect some of them are pretty nasty."

"So why do you care what happens to me?" his voice was quiet, calm, controlled.

"Well. . . " she hedged. _Powers or no powers, this was still a man who projected strength and authority. This was still man who shouldn't easily be crossed._

"Yes?" he was looking directly at her. She could see him from the corner of her eye.

"We might be needing your help on this little project we've got going. Nothing to worry about, but . . . uh. . . we'll talk about it tomorrow," she rushed out.

"Fine then. You'll pick me up in the morning and help me get back into my house."

"Wait a minute. I want to be clear about this. I'm not your chauffeur, your assistant, your apprentice, your employee, your maid . . . "

"I know that, Miss Swan, which is why I appreciate you putting yourself out very much."

He said it with such sincerity that now Emma did feel sorry for the guy. "All right. Will eight o'clock work?"

"Fine. Take me to Granny's for some of her swill, then to Regina's. Can't say I'm looking forward to either of these endeavors. I guess in the morning you can take me back to the diner for breakfast. I'm not eating anything that Regina fixes."

 **Late That Evening at Regina's**

Apparently Robin was keeping clothes at Regina's because she was able to provide him some cotton pants and a tee-shirt to sleep in. She'd put him up in her guest room which was, as Emma had said, above the garage and complete with its own bathroom (and even a little kitchen area). He got a shower and dressed in the pants, which were too long, and the tee-shirt, which was too big. He lay down on the bed. There was a phone in the room. He debated at length with himself but finally picked it up and called Belle _maybe she would answer if she didn't know it was him._

"Rumple," she answered her voice soft and endearing.

"How . . . how did you know it was me?" he asked.

"Oh, never mind. How are you darling? "

 _She didn't sound angry._ "I'm out of the hospital. Emma and Regina think I'm in some danger and insisted I stay with Regina – yeah, I get the irony. Belle, how . . . how are you?" _Lame, that's all he could come up with._

"I'm very well. Can I come see you?"

"Do you want to?" _He didn't mean to sound so hopeful, so eager._

"Yes."

"I'm in the room above the garage," he told her.

"I'll be right there."

She hung up and he leaned back on the bed. _Belle wanted to see him, was willing to see him. She wasn't mad at him._

Then the dark thoughts bubbled up. _Maybe she wanted to break up with him, move for a divorce. Maybe this was the kiss-off._

It wasn't long. There was a knock on the door. He limped over and opened the door.

Belle was there, looking up at him.

He was stunned.

"Belle, what have you done?" he asked.

 **Thanks to my wonderful reviewers: Grace5231973, orthankg1, Robin4, deweymay, Drac1026, ladybugsmomma, MyraValhallah, jewel415 (chapters 1 & 2), Erik'sTrueAngel, juju0268, MarieQuiteContrarie (chapters 1 & 2), and Trixie09. I really enjoy reading your kind comments and your insights. Some of you may be aware that a mean-spirited troll left a vicious personal attack (which I have since deleted feeling it was both disrespectful and abusive), so the pleasant nice comments are even more appreciated.**

 _NEXT: Mostly Rumple and Belle chatting and other stuff_


	4. Coming Together

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 4**

 **Coming Together**

 _This chapter was a bit more challenging to write. I knew Rumple's response but trying to convey Belle's indecisiveness, how there are now two voices within her that are vying for control (and feeling each other out) – that was tricky. Hope this serves._

Belle stood at the door, a tiny, still figure wrapped in silk, wrapped in mystery.

"Darling," Belle looked up and then moved quickly to kiss her Rumple.

He was too stunned to move and stood still while she wrapped her arms around him and managed to kiss him directly on the lips.

"Oh, darling. You do forgive me? Can you ever forgive me? Please say you forgive me," she whispered and kissed him again.

He did what he could to pull away, though he remained encased in her arms. "What. . . what has happened to you?" _He knew. He already knew._

"I've changed," she answered simply but kept her arms wrapped around him. There was no question that her strength was much increased. "I've changed so much."

"Belle. I . . . I . . . I lived a very long time with the Dark One in my head. I recognize him . . . it," he told her. "What happened? How . . . ?"

Belle softened and released him. She stepped away from him, turned away. She became very serious. "It was coming for you¸ Rumple. Coming back for you. I was all alone with you in the shop. The darkness had fled when the Apprentice took out your heart and cleansed it. Emma and the others . . . they followed it out into the town square. But then it came back. I . . . I picked up your dagger and I stabbed at it. I wouldn't . . . I couldn't let it take you again." She turned back to him and he could see that she had tears glistening in her blue eyes.

"So you let it come into you." He closed his eyes. "Belle, I would have rather had the Dark One in me ten times over than . . . this." He put his hand on her face, his thumb gently wiping away some of the tears that were now spilling over.

"It's not bad," she told him. "Not bad at all. I understand things a lot better now. I understand why you did what you did. I understand why you didn't want to give up the power," she said softly. She moved in on him again and, again, he stepped back.

"Why, Rumple. You act as if . . . as if you're afraid of me?" she said him, her expressive face reflecting her concern and confusion.

"It's not that. Well, maybe yes, it's a little of that," he confessed, noting how dark her eyes had become, her pupils dilated even in the bright light of Regina's little garage apartment. _It had suddenly dawned on him that Miss Swan had been well aware that his One True Love was now the Dark One and was very likely to come after him. Miss Swan had been trying to protect him against . . . this._

 _But Emma should have told him. He might have been able to prepare._

He wrapped his arms around her and began slowly, "Belle, when I became the Dark One, all the anger in me bubbled up and I wanted nothing more than to take revenge on all those people who had mistreated me, who had wronged me. And I did. I killed them. Have you . . . have you . . . ?" _Had she already started down the dark path? Had the voice of the Dark One already compromised her integrity, her goodness? Had it already started consuming her soul?_

"Have I killed anyone?" she finished his question. "No, darling." She smiled at him and he knew he was not looking at Belle at the moment. "I've thought some about it, you know, but I didn't. I think I was waiting for you, to help me, to guide me."

Gold pulled back slightly and rested his hands on her shoulders and allowed them to trail down her arms so that he was holding her by the elbows. He wasn't sure. _Was this just Belle's impact on the Dark One, tempering the darkness with her practical, plain good sense? Or was this the Dark One beginning to shred Belle's goodness and light with soft suggestions of mayhem and unbridled chaos?_ But she hadn't killed anyone, at least, not yet.

"I did right, waiting for you, huh?" she asked him. "You can help me with this, can't you? Help me be strong? Help me do the right thing?"

"Yes, my Belle. I can help you," he told her softly. He gathered her back to him, holding her, his heart breaking. It was so hard. She felt the same, smelled the same, even kissed the same.

But she was not the same.

"Belle, perhaps we should go away. Maybe go out to the cabin. Get away from things. Relax. Talk things over."

"I'd like that," she told him breathlessly. They clung to each other for a long moment. He relished the soft heat of her body molding to his, reminding him of how it had been during their best times together.

He kissed her on the hairline above her forehead. "You're already doing better than I did. I was consumed by so much rage when the Dark One took me. My first act was a murder. It felt good. I took revenge on a man that had mistreated me, humiliated me in front of my son."

Belle looked up at him. "There are some other primal drives besides rage that can clamor for attention, for satisfaction." She stepped away from him and used her hands to trace down her body, melding the silk to her curves. She grinned at him and then took a second step away from him. She twirled, "What do you think of my clothing? I didn't want to do the leather gear. It was . . . too butch for me."

"You look lovely. But you always look lovely. If you were in a burlap sack you would look lovely."

"Oh, that's so sweet." She looked him over. "You look tired." And again she moved towards him. Again _he couldn't stop himself_ he stepped back.

"Why do you keep stepping back?" she asked, her eyes narrowing just the slightest.

"You're not driven by anger." _He had a sudden realization. What a dolt he was!_ "You're driven by. . . ," he told her, taking a moment before finishing his thoughts, "lust." _Just another one of the seven deadly sins. The Dark One knew them all._

"Well, we didn't have much of a honeymoon did we? And our . . . marital bliss certainly didn't last very long," she was sultry and sexy and desire personified.

"Belle, please understand something . . . " his mouth was dry and it was hard to talk.

She had backed him up to the edge of the bed and now had pushed him down on it. She lay down next to him and whispered in his ear. "Just think, I know _exactly_ how to do the things you like. I know _all_ the things you like." She let her hand slip between his tee-shirt and his chest.

He closed a hand on her arm curtailing her meandering fingers. "Belle, understand. I still love you . . . very much. But this feels . . . too much like . . . there's a third person in bed with us."

"Because the Dark One's been in you and now the Dark One's in me? We 'll just be closer than most couples." And she began to kiss him along the jaw line. "Please Rumple, I _need_ this. I have been a churning, seething cauldron of passion and this . . . this _special_ time with you will help me get control."

"No, Belle. It doesn't work that way. It just feeds it. I know. You feed the madness and then it feeds on you." _It was hard to think. It was hard to talk. It was hard to breath._

"You're turning me down?" she asked, sitting up and withdrawing her hand.

"Yes . . . no . . . yes. I think, Belle, I know . . . we have some problems. We need to talk about some things that have happened." He struggled to sit back up again and took Belle's hands. She was tense and angry. "I have given this a lot of thought. I've had a lot of time to do some thinking. We love each other very much, but we have some serious problems. I asked you to marry me when I did because I wanted so much to tie you to me, as if my love might not be enough to keep you. I thought that if we were married it would make everything all right. It would be. . . as if Zelena had never happened, as if Bae's death had never happened. And then I began lying to you, a lot of lying . . . and then you . . . you . . ."

"Used the Dagger to control you when you trusted me not to and then, finally, I pushed you out of town?"

He nodded. "And now it's as if the Dark One hadn't almost succeeded in killing me."

Belle sighed. "So you wanna _talk_ about . . . _stuff_?" she asked sounding rather peeved.

" _That's not Belle talking_ ," he said to her sharply. "Don't forget I know you both well enough to know who I'm talking to," he cautioned her but then added, "most of the time. Listen, if you want to spend the night with me . . . here, we can, but I don't think we should . . . and I can't believe I'm saying this to a woman as beautiful and as willing as you are, but I don't think we should be . . . intimate. . . not tonight. I'm not saying 'not ever,' but I am saying we need to go slowly."

Belle looked long at him. "You know in some ways you have been my greatest disappointment," she told him.

He knew this was the Dark One talking, "And in other ways?"

"You're just disappointing," she almost spit at him. "You _never_ took the power I offered you. If you had accepted Cora, she would have helped you become king of the world. You could have ruled the entire Enchanted Forest with her, not to mention a myriad of other realms. But noooo, you had to go and find your son," Belle continued speaking sharply. "And everything you did was to that end. And then, and then you go and you. fall. in. love. with . . . with Belle, with me." Belle gave him a wicked look. "You know she has much more potential for darkness than you ever did."

"Belle won't let you win, Dark One. She's stronger than I ever was. And she's not a coward."

"Oh Rumple, why are we arguing? I don't want to be mad at you." He thought this might be Belle talking to him _but this time he couldn't be sure. Was the Dark One just making nice, trying to put him off his guard?_

He managed to respond, "Good. You're a lot scary when you're mad. Come." He held his arms out to her and she sank into them, both of them falling back onto the bed. "We will lie here together and be comfortable with each other."

"You sure you don't want to fuck?" she asked him snuggling up against him.

 _Definitely the Dark One talking there._ "I do, but now is not the right time, my sweet."

"Let me know if you change your mind," she said breathing into his ear and wrapping herself around him.

Gold settled in on his back. Belle had magicked away her boots and several layers of the silks she was wearing, leaving her exactly and only in a short silken chemise had caressed every curve of her luscious, sturdy body.

"Can you flip the lights off, my darling?" he asked wearily and she raised her hand, waving a single finger, turning off the lights and leaving them in the dark.

He patted her hair, stroking her tresses, running his fingers through the ebony strands. _Why'd she change her hair color? He liked the chestnut color that caught the sun and would shine like copper. She nuzzled closer to him. He had to smile. She wasn't fooling him. He knew damn well that the Dark One didn't need to sleep._

 _But as a human, particularly an older human, he did need to sleep. He held her closely and dozed off._

 **That Same Night**

"You think he'll be all right at Regina's?" Killian was asking Emma. She had dropped by his apartment. It was a fourth floor walk-up in a run-down apartment building near the docks. He was renting from _who else?_ Gold, who was charging him a lot but made up for it with plumbing that banged and heating that was petulant. Killian kept his place ship-shape. It was tidy and clutter free, both from his lacking a lot of personal possessions and preferring to have everything in its own place. Emma sat on one of the two chairs in the apartment next to his thrift shop aluminum and Formica cast-off table. It wobbled, missing a cap from one of its legs.

"Well, he wasn't too thrilled when I dropped him off. Regina had got some of Robin's clothes for him to sleep in and you'd think he'd've been grateful. He looked the clothes over, made some snarky comment how he'd never worn anything from Walmart before."

"How'd that go over with Regina?"

"How do you think? She puffed up and told him that he ought to be grateful that we were still putting up with his skinny ass. The argument went downhill from there. I had to separate them and took him back outside. The garage apartment has this set of stairs on the outside so he doesn't have to have anything more to do with Regina."

"I think Regina does care about him, in her own way," Killian observed.

"And he cares about her, in his own way. I only hope 'their own way' isn't going to have one of them skewering the other. But he is safer there than anywhere else." Emma rubbed her neck. "I didn't think he'd agree to stay with me - for one thing there's a propriety thing since I'm by myself right now and for another thing, I'd be afraid I'd kill him if I had to put up with him for the entire night."

"So losing the Dark One didn't make him into a more likeable person?" Killian was curious. "I thought he'd be back to the original spinner model – meek and mild."

"If anything, he's more cantankerous."

"Speaking of propriety, Miss Swan, I do need to ask your intentions towards me tonight."

"Too tired for anything, I'm sorry. I just came by to bring you up to date. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to pick him up to take him to breakfast at Granny's and then we're going to chainsaw our way through to his house."

"Chainsaw your way?" Killian was confused.

"I was taking him back by his house and we found it was completely overgrown by a huge hedge of brambles. Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is the work of the Dark One as a way to keep people out. I figure Belle is in there doing research on how to get to Camelot."

"Aren't we trying to find that out too?"

"We are. . . well, sorta. We are doing research too. Henry is looking into some stuff."

"Just Henry? Uh . . . yeah, I understand why. We used to use Belle for this purpose."

"Exactly." Emma smiled at him. "I'm tired and I need to get home and rest. I have to get up and spend the morning with a very demanding ex-wizard."

 **Very Late (Early Morning) That Same Night**

Gold had slept some but otherwise had lain in the bed with his Belle lying nearly on top of him. She would occasionally moan and mutter and he knew she was very uncomfortable. He could smell her sweet, spicy arousal. She would nestle herself against him, positioning his leg between hers so she could rub against him. From time to time she would whimper - small sounds similar to those that she had made when he had taken her on their wedding night and each night thereafter until she had expelled him from Storybrooke and her bed.

This was the most desirable woman he'd ever known and she did care for him, said she loved him. Yes, there was the awkwardness of the Dark One, an entity that knew him, that he knew, being there, being between them. He had awakened in the wee hours and thought long and hard about what he wanted to do. He knew somewhat of that which Belle was going through, of the strong drives that were trying to control her. He also recognized that her presence, soft and yielding, was creating havoc with his own self-control which was thin as onion skin. He reluctantly made a decision that was probably the wrong one, _but consistent with his history of decision making_. He took a hold onto Belle and rolled her onto her back.

 _He was going to hell anyway._

She opened her eyes as he reached between them to pull down his pants and push up her little chemise so he could begin his entrance into her wet heat. She immediately welcomed him and responded to his attentions by tilting her hips and pushing up as he pushed down. She kissed him as she could, touching her lips to his shoulders and then with a strength she had not possessed before, she rolled him onto his back so that she straddled him. He relished her and exalted in her quick response. She cried out her release twice but there was one disconcerting moment, when he released himself into her, that he thought her blue eyes reflected not so much his Belle _but something else_.

 **Many, Many Years Ago in a Place Far Away**

"What do you think sir?" the young boy asked the older man. The boy was holding up a pheasant.

"Looks like it's a clean kill. Now let's get the feathers off and we can roast it up for a meal."

"Yes sir." The boy began plucking the bird while the older man got the spit ready.

They were in a comfortable, cozy cottage with a couple of cots in one corner, a sitting area in front of the fire and a table with several lanterns around it in another corner. There were piles of papers and an ink well on the table.

The older man was dark-skinned and dressed in simple homespun robes. The boy was blond with soft blue eyes and a pleasing countenance. He was dressed in threadbare clothing, patched, but clean.

"We'll have our reading lesson this afternoon," the older man told the boy.

"But sir, I'd rather practice sword fighting," the boy protested.

"I'm sure you would, but I think right now your sword fighting skills far exceed your reading abilities. It's most important for you to read . . . and read well."

"Why?" the boy asked.

"It's useful knowledge, a very important skill."

"Yes sir," the boy responded, obviously not happy but willing to go along with the older man.

The two continued working on different chores in the cottage when they heard a noise, a gentle knock on the door. The boy leapt up excitedly, "Lady Nimue!" It was a lovely dark-haired woman.

She came into the cottage and hugged the older man and gave the boy a kiss.

"How are things at the castle?" the man asked her.

"In turmoil. As you would expect. Uther is holding things together, but it's an on-going conflict."

"He's tired. He wants to revert."

The woman glanced at the boy. "He needs to continue for a few more years. If he goes out now . . . "

"I know. I'll talk to him. I'll convince him."

"How goes the . . . other project you are working on?" the woman asked the man softly as if she was talking about something that should be kept quiet.

"I have come up with a plan, but it is most unsatisfactory."

"Why? Won't it work?'

"Oh it will work, but it requires a great sacrifice."

The woman stood by quietly. "So you are going to continue to work on it?"

"Yes," the man replied.

 **Back in Storybrooke – The Next Morning**

Emma stood outside Regina's house. She wasn't at all sure about this eight o'clock pickup time. She hoped to hell that Gold had gotten his fine self up. She had knocked on the front door and Regina answered wearing an old red chenille robe that had seen better days. _Not quite her usual style._ It was covering up . . . Emma didn't want to know what, if anything, the robe covered up.

"Just checking in. I'm picking him up. Do you think he's up?" Emma asked.

"Haven't heard from him. You want to go up and get him?" she asked sleepily.

"No need for that," Emma and Regina both turned to see Gold coming down the stairs carrying the cane but not leaning on it. He was dressed in his increasingly rumpled suit from yesterday. He glanced at Regina's bathrobe. "I would have thought, with you keeping a gentleman company, that you would have something more exotic for a morning cover-up – something in silk, perhaps with an oriental flavor."

"Go away," Regina told him.

"Thank you for your hospitality such as it was, Regina. I hope I shan't need it again tonight."

Emma led the way back to her car. They rode in silence the short distance to the diner. Sitting across from each other, Emma watched him closely. He seemed more relaxed than he'd been the night before. But something had changed, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

They placed their order, Gold getting tea and toast with marmalade and Emma getting three eggs sunny side up, toast, a short stack, bacon and hashbrowns with coffee.

"You eat like a lumberjack, Miss Swan," Gold told her.

"I work like a lumberjack, Mr. Gold," she responded. "So what's the agenda for this morning?" she asked.

"We go back to my house," he told her.

Emma hesitated, "Your house? Er . . .have you thought if this is the best idea?" she asked slowly.

He sat still a moment and waited until she had taken a swig of coffee before responding. "It's my home. Why would I not want to get back into my home? Or. . . should I be expecting to find that the new Dark One has taken up residence in my house?"

Emma spewed. "You know?"

"I figured it out," he told her. "You have been dancing around the subject of Belle and I assumed that there was some bad news associated with her. I initially thought that she'd absconded with Will Scarlet and you didn't know how to tell me that I'd been dumped so soon after my . . . indisposition and following resurrection. It took me a while to realize that she'd become the latest Dark One."

"How . . . how did you figure it out?"

Gold took a bite of toast and thoroughly chewed it before swallowing. "She came to see me last night."

Emma closed her eyes. "I thought Regina's house would have enough wards to protect you."

"Well, I, unknowingly, invited her in."

"What? The Dark One's like a vampire?"

"Not hardly," he glowered at her and shook his head. "but even if there were wards up that might keep the Dark One out, and none of you are capable of casting such, they would be nullified if someone . . . inside, invited her in. Since I didn't know any better, because you hadn't seen fit to let me know. . . " Gold did not finish.

"I'm sorry. I guess we thought we were protecting you. Are you all right?"

"Don't I look all right? We talked. She fixed my knee."

Emma looked at him closely. "So all you did was what? talk and she fixed your knee?"

Gold looked back at her, "Let's say . . . we . . . reconciled. That's all I'm comfortable sharing. I'm hardly inclined to discuss my private life with you, Miss Swan."

"Well, I don't really want to get details of your private life, euuh, but if you're doing the naughty with the Dark One, I think you're just a tad compromised."

"When the Dark One is Belle, I was compromised long ago." He took a sip of his tea. "Now, I'm trying to figure out why you're being so nice to me. In the past, I would have been left on the floor of my shop to rot, but this time, I get taken to the hospital and someone is there to stand guard over me. That's a lot of attention for a powerless former Dark One. I can't help but wonder why, why are you and Regina so focused on keeping me alive?"

He sat back and waited.

"We're looking for a way to Camelot and we think you can help us. We want to get there before the Dark One does."

"Why Camelot?" he asked.

"Because that's where Merlin lives and he was the one who created this whole Dark One Dagger Curse thing. It's possible that he can put everything right again."

Rumple took another bite of toast and a sip of tea.

After not getting a response, Emma asked him, "So, do you know a way to Camelot?"

"Well, of course I do - several ways, Miss Swan," he answered.

 **Thank you, thank you for your kind reviews (always appreciated): Katie00980, juju0268, CharlotteAshmore (Chapters 1, 2 and 3), orthankg1, Robin4, Grace5231973, deweymay, MarieQuiteContrarie, Aletta-Feather (Chapters 1 and 2), ladybugsmomma, MyraValhallah, EevyLynn, kagi-chan2, Erik'sTrueAngel, RaziOUAT, and jewel415.**

 _NEXT: One way into Camelot is revealed_

 _Belle and Gold continue to discuss their relationship_


	5. Desires

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 5**

 **Desires**

 **AN: A little smut towards the end of this chapter.**

"Several ways? There are several ways to get to Camelot?!" Emma was excited. She waited and when there was nothing forthcoming, she asked impatiently, "Well . . . . what are they?"

"Miss Swan," Gold focused initially on his tea before answering. "I don't believe I'm under any obligation to share this information with you."

Emma was surprised but managed to recover. "Well, not to mention how Regina and I stood by you while you were in a coma, protecting and taking care of your ass, I would have at least thought that you would've want Belle to be free of the Dark One. It was certainly something you wanted for yourself! If we can get to Merlin, he may be able to undo the entire Dagger Curse thing since he was the one who contrived it in the first place!"

Gold looked at her for a moment before answering. "Merlin may not be the all-around good guy that you think he is. He's not human and does not always have the best interests of humans in his decision making. May I remind you, he _created_ the Dark One – a curse that consumes a human soul. Does that sound like a . . . hero to you?"

"Okay, so I didn't know that," Emma was a bit chagrined, but then she continued, "But don't you want to free Belle?" Emma asked him. "Do you want her condemned to the bondage of the Dagger? Can you see her as a slave to anyone who might just come across that Dagger? Do you want that dark power to consume the good in her?" Emma was pleading with him.

"Belle is strong. She is stronger than I ever was," Gold told her.

"But she is not stronger than the Dark One. You know that. Going to Merlin is the best chance, maybe the only chance, of saving her."

Gold continued to sit quietly. "She would likely make me her consort, her favorite. The female Dark Ones were always some of the most interesting. They were more . . . circumspect, more careful. Yet, in many ways, more ruthless." He looked her in the eye, "You would have made a most interesting Dark One yourself, Miss Swan."

Emma shuddered. She had come close, very close, at one point feeling the tendrils of the dark energies reaching out to her, reaching in to her.

"Oh come on now," he leaned over to her and his voice dropped to a near seductive whisper. "Don't you wonder, don't you wonder what it would be like to have all that power at your disposal? Not to have to worry about the consequences of your actions? To be able to _take_ whatever you desire, _do_ whatever you want? Miss Swan, you've always been so right, so proper, so correct. But to be free of those constraints, to be able to get whatever you want. You could have Mr. Jones and anyone else you might want to enjoy. Hell, you could even have me if you wanted. I understand that you have a penchant for well-dressed, wealthy men."

Emma flushed and closed her eyes. _Damn_. "You heard that when Regina and I were talking?"

"What? No, had you said something along those lines?" he asked her innocently.

Emma recovered, "No, no, not at all, of course not." But she was disconcerted. "So are you going to help us or not?" She tried to move the conversation back to the initial question.

"I have to think about it. What do I get if I help you? And don't give me 'it's the right thing to do' crap, that I'm helping family. You people don't give a shit about me, or Belle for that matter, except when we're able to help you, so don't expect me to help you just because I can."

"What do you want?"

He sat back and looked closely at her. "A deal? You're asking for a deal?"

"If you want to put it in those terms," Emma was wary of the man. This, after all, was an area in which he excelled.

He folded his hands, steepling his forefingers together. He looked at Emma for a long moment. "You will keep me apprised of your plans. When I ask for your help, you will provide it."

Emma hesitated. "So, we're back to me owing you a favor?"

"Now, Miss Swan, really. I didn't ask you for anything that you weren't able to provide. I didn't ask you to violate any of your moral codes. It was quid pro quo. It would be again this time."

It was Emma's turn to look down at her food.

"What? Still having problems trusting me?" he asked her.

"All right. But understand something. If we have to, we will go after Belle. She is the Dark One. She represents a threat to everyone here in Storybrooke. We are going to do everything we can to neutralize her."

"Neutralize? But not destroy?" His eyes narrowed and his low tones were full of threat and menace, "If you and your cohorts kill my Belle, then, I will kill you, all of you," he promised. Then he considered, "I can tell you that Belle will likely not be a threat unless you are ill-advised enough to thwart her. And if you do, if you try to 'neutralize' her, you better be sure that you can do just that. Otherwise, there will be no force, no spell, no tactical advantage that will allow you to defeat her. She will be merciless. She will destroy you all. I'm telling you, you leave her alone and she will leave you alone," Gold explained very quietly, very slowly.

Emma took one more drink of her coffee. She then looked him in the eye, "I would be agreeable to the favor-thing. "

"I'm not agreeing to anything yet, but I will consider a possible alliance. I'm in a delicate situation between you and Belle."

"Well, consider your options well, Mr. Gold. You once told me you were a man who made bad decisions. Make the right decision, the good decision for a change. You can help us get rid of this whole Dark One Dagger curse and bring your Belle back to you or you can side with the Dark One and try to stop us and we will kick your ass." This time it was Emma who spoke firmly to him.

Gold sat still for a moment and Emma felt that she caught the slightest suggestion of a smile on the man's face. _She felt that he was probably laughing at the proposed spectacle of her kicking his ass._ He responded to her slowly, "There are many ways to go from magical realm to magical realm. Getting to a non-magical realm is the difficult challenge. Now that Storybrooke has _some_ magic, it becomes easier to get to other magical realms." He didn't say anything more. "Let me think about it Emma, let me think about it."

Emma gave him a quick smile. "Sure. Are we ready to go get that chainsaw?" she asked.

"I won't need it. Belle is going to allow me in," he told her. "I just need a ride to my house."

"Sure," she told him and signaled Ruby over for the check.

Gold paid and left a generous tip.

Emma drove him out to his house and let him out. She watched from the car and he walked towards the brambles. They parted for him and then rewove themselves together as he passed under and through them. She shivered – it was like he'd been swallowed by a great brown, prickly beast.

She went back to Regina's house.

"Well?" Regina asked her as she came through. "I thought you would be longer, helping him cut through to his house."

"Nope, the brambles just opened up and let him in."

"How?!" Regina was very surprised.

"Apparently, Belle came to see Gold last night," Emma began.

"You mean, here? Belle came here? How did she get in?"

"Gold said he invited her in. From what I could gather, they spent the night together."

"You mean . . . here?! Belle, the Dark One and Rumple! Creepiest threesome ever! I'm going to have to fumigate my guest room. Throw out those sheets. And Henry and Roland were in the house! That's . . . that's the last time I'm going to have Rumple here," Regina was scandalized.

"Regina," Emma reminded her, "they _are_ a married couple. It's not like Gold had some under-aged school girl up in his room."

"Oh, like he's never favored young school-room misses," Regina spit out. She shook her head, "I don't know anything about female Dark Ones but shtupping one doesn't seem like a good idea."

"Well, we don't know for sure that there was any . . . eh . . . shtupping. He said something about her choosing him for his consort."

"Well, if that's true then he's not going to help us," Regina said resignedly. "Maybe we should have left him on the shop floor. Belle would have found him and healed him up and we'd be right where we are now."

"Maybe not. He didn't exactly say no to helping us. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't want Belle to experience the down side of being the Dark One. And he did share that there were 'several ways' to get to Camelot from here so it's definitely do-able."

"Well, we'll keep working on it ourselves then. We've got a bunch of marker things from the Apprentice's house and we are taking turns drawing portals. I've tried them all and no luck so far. You'll need to take a turn, too."

"Happy to. Let me check in with my dad and then, unless there's a problem, I'll be back to give it a whirl."

 **Later That Morning**

"Emma?"

It was Jefferson calling on her cell.

"Yeah, What up?" she asked him.

"Can you come by?"

"Sure, I'm in the area now. Is there a problem?"

"Maybe. I don't want to talk about things over the phone."

Soon enough Emma pulled up and got out of her car to check in with the reclusive hatter. He seemed somewhat better now that the Dark Curse had been broken and especially since he'd been reunited with his daughter. Little Paige-Grace was clearly a stabilizing force on the young man. Still, knowing he'd kidnapped her once before (even though it had been for very good reasons), Emma was always a tad leery of the man. He still seemed a half-bubble off center.

He opened the door and stepped aside to let her in.

"What's going on?" she asked him.

"I had a visitor," he began.

Emma waited.

"It was Belle. She seemed . . . different. Dressed different. Talked different. Acted different.

Emma sighed. "Jefferson, long story here. Bottom line. Belle's the new Dark One."

"She stabbed Rumple?!" he was astonished.

"No, this time the Curse was removed from Mr. Gold, from Rumplestiltskin, by the Apprentice. It was freed and sought a new host. Gold is still very much with us, but freed of the curse."

"Rumplestiltkin has no powers?" Jefferson asked very much concerned. "How is he handling it?"

"I don't know. He's grumpy and unpleasant, but that's what he was like when he was still cursed," Emma shrugged it off. "But what is this about you seeing Belle? How was she different?"

"She looked, dressed . . . and was . . . kinda seductive. She asked if I knew a way to get to Camelot, that Rumple was working on getting there to confab with Merlin. I told her I didn't. . . but Emma . . ." he looked at her, "Emma, I do."

Emma felt a moment of exaltation. "You do! We've been working on getting there. Merlin designed this whole Dagger Curse thing and he can put things back to rights, save Belle, maybe find some other way to store the Darkness that wouldn't involve a person's soul. We've got to get to him first. Belle . . . as the Dark One, wants to get to him to kill him."

"That makes sense. Is Rumple in danger?"

"Nothing unusual for him. The usual round of enemies, and, of course, Belle has dark designs on him. I'm thinking if any nasties come after him right now, she may protect him. Now, please, tell me, how do we get to Camelot?"

 **That Same Morning**

Gold, even with his own history of managing magic was slightly creeped out by the brambles. The sharp thorns on their vines seemed to recognize him and dutifully parted to allow him through . . . and then closed . . . preventing him from leaving, changing his mind and running away.

He berated himself as he walked through the hedge. _He was not only a coward but he was weak, pathetically weak. He had hoped to get through last night just holding his beautiful Belle, but he hadn't been able to manage that. He had compromised their reconciliation with his own unruly drives. He had known that the Dark One was laughing at him. Belle had been right; she did know exactly what he enjoyed._

 _Now, knowing what the Heroes were up to, what Dark Lady Belle was up to, he knew what he had to do. It would be very dangerous. He only hoped he could remain brave enough, strong enough to see it through._

"Darling," Belle greeted Rumple as he made it through the brambles and on into the front door.

"My dear," he held open his arms for her and gave her a quick kiss. "Let me tell you thank you for healing my knee. I didn't even notice it until I was going down the stairs at Regina's."

"Of course you're welcome," she was kissing him back along the neck. "I don't mind you carrying the cane, but I didn't like thinking you're in pain from your knee. I've missed you so. Let's go upstairs," she whispered.

Rumple shook his head. "Belle, you seem to be . . . unusually amorous," he said diplomatically.

"Well, I haven't seen my husband in a while, except for a little cozy time last night. I feel like we have a lot to make up for."

"Belle," he said sharply and he took her by the arms and held her. "Look at me."

She complied, smiling and nearly purring as he held her.

"Belle, you're my wife. You are not a tart, a bitch in heat or a floozy. I need you to get a grip on yourself . . ."

She interrupted, "I'd rather get a grip on you," and she dissolved into giggles.

"I'm sure of that, but I need you to focus. Come on darling. For me. Please," he looked her directly in the eyes, his soft brown eyes meeting her sparkling blue ones.

"It's so strong, Rumple. It's so strong," and she had tears pooling in her eyes and spilling over.

"I know, darling. I know. The Dark One really ignites primal desires. For me, it was anger and pride. Other Dark Ones have been noted for their greed and gluttony. Yours seems to be tending towards . . . lust."

"How did you stand it? How did you manage? It's so strong and it wants me to . . . to . . . " she looked away from him. "I just have all this energy coiled up inside me and the only thing that will help me is . . . " she looked away from him. "sex. That's all I can think about. I want to do you right here in the hallway, have you slam me up against the wall and in that big chair in the living room and on the kitchen table and in front of the fireplace on that thick sheepskin rug and . . . "

"Belle," he interrupted. "I get the idea. I want you to do something for me. I want you to think about our time together in the Dark Castle. How you would take care of me. Do you remember that time I took you out of the castle to pick some strawberries? You had pestered me and pestered me." He was standing with his arms around her but had leaned back to keep looking her in the eyes.

She laughed even while still crying. "I remember. I wanted to fix you a special dessert and you had mentioned a strawberry patch outside the castle. Since I couldn't go outside the castle. . . "

"You kept after me to take you. And I . . . finally, after much grousing and complaining, I did."

"And we had a picnic," Belle's face had lit up with the memories. "We had some cold tomato soup and I had made some ham and cheese sandwiches and . . . and . . . "

"You had some lemonade and some kinda cookies with little raisins."

"Oatmeal raisin," she told him.

"Yes, yes, Belle. We had a wonderful afternoon. You picked strawberries while I pretended to nap and then you made me a very delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert that night."

"That was a wonderful time, wasn't it?"

"We just enjoyed each other's company." Rumple became very serious. "Belle, I enjoy sex with you. I can't tell you how satisfying it is for me to join with you, to be so close to you that I'm part of you, to give you pleasure, to take pleasure from you. And I'll admit that from time to time I do just enjoy fucking you, but I enjoy making love to you much, much more. I need you, _I need you_ , to concentrate on being Belle," he told her.

The Dark One, the Lady Belle, nodded. "I understand. I will try." She took a deep breath, "This helps, Rumple. Helping me focus on who I am, helping me focus on _us,_ I can remain Belle."

"Now, my dear, tell me about this new look you've adopted," he smiled at her.

"Do you like it?" She twirled for him.

"I could get used to it. Now tell me all what you've been up to," and he sat down in one of his leather chairs and brought his fingers together beneath his chin. He leaned back and listened to Belle as she began to share her insights into being a Dark One.

 **That Same Morning**

Jefferson had not been comfortable with outright sharing his knowledge with Emma.

"We need to go and see someone," he told her.

"Really?!" Emma was becoming exasperated.

"Well, this way won't work unless you have support from the right person. Take us to wherever Malificent is," he directed her.

"What? Does she have to cast a spell or something? Isn't it something that Regina or I might be able to do?" Emma pressed him.

"I'll explain when we get there," Jefferson told her and flatly refused to talk any more.

Malificent and her daughter were staying in one of the older homes near Regina's stately mayor's mansion. It was a classic Queen Anne style, an older home complete with a turret. It had been painted a bit more subdued than was typically seen in the painted lady style, a dark grey with black, blue and a pale pink as complementary colors. Emma didn't know how Malificent had come into the home, probably some agreement between Regina and Gold.

Emma had called ahead and Malificent was expecting them.

"Jefferson," she nodded, greeting the realm jumper politely.

"Oh good, you two know each other," Emma said.

"I used to run errands for Rumple and sometimes I'd have to see Mallie for something or another," Jefferson explained. "Where's your daughter?" he asked.

"In the kitchen," Malificent told him and led the way.

Emma was a bit intimidated by the house. It had been furnished with elegance, classy elegance, not store-bought elegance like Regina possessed. This was a natural, intuitive decorating style. Items were an eclectic mix of antiques, modern and handmade. There were windows touched with stained glass and banisters that were hand-carved. It was beautiful.

The kitchen was another mix of modern and old with treated concrete countertops and an oak table. Shelving was open and revealed a well-matched china collection. Emma had a pang of envy _How did Malificent get this place when she was struggling to maintain a tiny one-bedroom? Maybe she should have a little chat with Gold about the range of rental properties that he seemed to have on hand._

Lily was sitting at the oak table. "Hi Emma," she greeted Emma softly.

"Lily," Emma smiled back at the woman who been her closest, only friend during her disrupted, chaotic childhood. She now knew they had been tied together by a heinous act committed by her parents, an act that she was still struggling to forgive. Her parents had removed Emma's potential for darkness and infused it into Lily and had separated Lily from her mother.

"You look good," Emma told her old friend, not always her friend.

And Lily did. Malificent had evidently done a Girls' Day Out with her daughter, taking her shopping, introducing her to a hairstylist and getting manicures. Emma curled her unpolished nails into her hand.

"Mal's been doing stuff with me," Lily said with a shrug.

"Mal?" Emma asked.

"I'm not comfortable calling her mom. You'd understand that," Lily told her. "She's been very nice to me. I'm still trying to wrap my head around who she is."

"I get that," Emma told her. "I still wake up saying 'Huh?!'"

"Still getting used to having these . . . abilities," Lily shared. "How long did it take you to get used to your . . . talents?" she asked.

"Let's see, I've been here more than four years now . . . so more than four years now and counting," Emma told her. "I still struggle. I'm still finding out things I can do and things that I can't do. Regina's actually helped me a lot. Oh, yeah," Emma remembered why they were there. "This is an old . . . friend, Jefferson. He wanted to . . . why did you want to come out here?" she asked him.

"Can you still manage to turn into a dragon?" he asked Malificent.

"I can. And so can my daughter," Malificent answered.

Jefferson rubbed his face. "You two know you are able to fly between magical realms?" he asked.

Malificent walked around and looked at him before she answered. "What?! Are you sure?"

"Very sure. You've done it before, but I'm guessing Rumple gave you a forgetting potion. He wanted to keep that little trick a secret. He was always one for playing things close to the chest."

"How?" Malificent asked. "How did we do this?"

"Hey, I'm not a dragon. I wouldn't know. I know he would have you picture or imagine where you wanted to go and I would watch and you would just fly off and then . . . disappear."

"So how come he didn't fly to this world?" Emma asked. "Why did he have to do the Dark Curse?"

"Because the trick only works to go between magical realms. You could go between the Enchanted Forest and such places as Oz and Wonderland but not to New York City. No magic there."

"Can you carry passengers?" Emma asked, a plan beginning to form.

"You mean, like have someone ride on my back?" Malificent asked. She sounded appalled.

"Yeah," Emma confirmed _just a bit uncomfortable confronting this proud old, powerful sorceress._

Malificent glared at her. "I can. We can. Not that many but up to three perhaps, if they are good friends and don't mind sitting very closely together."

"Well, let me call Regina and we'll get some stuff together. . . . Uh . . . that is assuming one or both of you are willing to go to try this stunt and get us to Camelot?" she asked.

"I'll go," Lily said. "I want to try this dimensional flying stuff out. Does anybody know what this place looks like that I'm supposed to be flying us to?"

"I can help with that," Jefferson told her.

"You coming, cutie?" Lily asked him.

"Uh . . . I hadn't planned on it. Actually at this very moment, I'm pissing off the new Dark One and I think I should lay low awhile."

Emma considered. "I think I know someone else who can help us, if I can convince him to meet with me."

 **Much Later That Day - In The Evening**

Emma had called him, not sure if she could trust him or not, but desperate. And there was only one person she could turn to when desperate. And he had asked that, as part of their bargain, that she keep him apprised of her plans.

"Can you meet with me?" she asked him. "By yourself?"

Gold was sitting across from the Dark One¸his lady wife, his Belle. Earlier, they had enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch, with tomato soup, ham and cheese sandwiches, lemonade and strawberries, together in his back yard. Belle seemed calmer but he had no doubt her agitation was just below the surface. It wouldn't take much for her to explode. _He was going to need to channel some of her excess energies._

"Well, I'm doing very well right now. Thank you for asking."

"The dragons can fly us to Camelot," Emma said shortly.

"Of course. That's nice," he said neutrally.

"But Malificent doesn't remember doing it before and Lily has no clue how to do it. We need some help in telling them what to do. We want to leave out bright and early tomorrow morning at six o'clock in the ball park. If we can figure out how it's done, Lily will be taking Regina and me over."

"Flattered, but not interested," Gold told her and hung up.

"Darling?" Belle asked her eyes bright with curiosity.

"Henry was checking in on me. He wanted to profile me for some school paper he was writing. I think he might do better with his other grandfather. David is much more the white knight type," Gold told her.

"Rumple?" Belle eyes were still bright, but not so much with curiosity.

"This was a lovely afternoon my dear," he told her.

"I wish. . . I wish we could stay like this . . . for always."

"Well, we pretty much can. We can bring food in as we want it. I'm sure you can conjure anything else we might imagine desiring. But I have to ask. Am I your prisoner here? Or am I free to come and go as I might want to?"

"You're not a prisoner," she assured him.

"Good. Otherwise I would be feeling that you were treating me as a toy, a pet, like Zelena treated me. And I wouldn't like it. I would be. . . unhappy."

"I want you to stay because you want to," Belle insisted.

"So if I want to walk out to the mailbox . . ."

"The brambles will part for you, coming or going."

"Thank you," he told her sincerely. He sat back in one of his comfortable chairs and gestured to her. "Come here."

Belle eagerly came over to him and settled into his lap.

"I may not be quite the performer I was when I was under the Dagger Curse, Belle. The Dark One always had a way of providing its bearer with exaggerated abilities."

"Once is enough if that's all you can manage," she told him contritely.

"Oh, I think I can manage more than once," he promised her with a smile and he began to slip off the straps on one of her shoulders. He kissed her shoulder. As he pushed the layers of silky garments down, he asked her, "Are you not wearing undergarments?"

"No, they disturbed the lines of the silks," she answered guilelessly.

"Shit," he muttered to himself and swallowed. He pushed down the straps from the other shoulders and the multiple layers dropped below her breasts. He placed his palm under one of her lovely orbs, contrasting the darkness of his browned peasant hands with the whiteness of her skin.

"You always had the most beautiful hands," she told him, leaning back onto him. "And the most clever fingers." She closed her eyes while he explored her softness, tweaking the nipple of first one then the other breast.

"We're not waiting, going slowly or any such nonsense, are we?" she asked.

"Not tonight," he was nuzzling her neck. He paused a moment. "Why don't you save us a little time and take us upstairs?"

She grinned at him and transported them both up to his bedroom. She placed them both onto his king-sized bed.

"Good," he noted. "You left your clothes on. I like taking them off."

"You always did."

"It's like unwrapping a present," he told her. And he slipped the garments off of her, passing them under her pleasantly rounded rear and down her legs. He took some pleasure seeing that the powerful sorceress seemed shy, looking away while he looked over her nude body, tracing his hand over her curves and her valleys. "You are so beautiful," he murmured and he kicked off his shoes and pulled off his socks.

"Would I look different if I went back to the Enchanted Forest?" she asked him. "Like you did?"

"I think so, but each Dark One has their own unique appearance. Some have been very beautiful and others very ugly. I think you would be very beautiful." He began dropping kisses on her shoulders, her breasts, her stomach. She realized his intent.

"Take your clothes off," she told him. "Or let me undress you."

"Later. I like this as it is for the moment." He still wore his shirt and his pants. He dropped down to her hips and shifted his position so that he knelt between her legs. He noticed she had altered the color of her nether curls to the same sable tones as her hair but had not changed her anatomy in any other way. He began planting kisses on her very sensitive mound slowly working his way down, using his fingers to part her folds so that he could get directly to her most sensitive little bud. Knowing that she couldn't tolerate direct contact until she was very aroused, he proceeded slowly, rubbing with his fingers and licking with his tongue, usually small circles, increasing in pressure.

"Yes, yes," she encouraged him. Soon enough, she was ready for direct contact and he began to flick his tongue back and forth, still using his fingers to stimulate and rub against her. He slipped his finger into her, as always marveling at how snug she was. It took a moment but using the caramel she was dripping he was able to get a second finger into her, all the while using his tongue directly on her sensitive nub which had grown and stiffened under his tender attentions. He began to suck and felt her begin to tremble and tighten up, always a prelude to her coming. There was the little scream and her entire body bucked and spasmed. He didn't relent but continued to press against her, knowing she would want as much stimulation as he could give her.

She fell back breathing heavily. "That was wonderful. Let me, let me, let me do the same for you, but give me a moment."

He chuckled and reapplied himself to her, despite her protests that it was too soon, that she couldn't . . . couldn't. . . possibly . . . and she screamed again.

 **Very Early the Next Morning**

"Well let's get going, ladies. I don't know how much time we have and I've got to teach a dragon how to fly." Gold, dressed in leathers, strolled up to them, surprising Lily, Emma and Regina. They were congregated in the Storybrooke ball park completing their preparations for attempting a trip to Camelot.

 **Thanks so much to all my reviewers: orthankg1, RaziOUAT, kagi-chan2, EevyLynn, deweymay, juju0268, Grace5231973, Erik'sTrueAngel, ladybugsmomma, Robin4, CharlotteAshmore, MyraValhallah, Drac1026 (Chapters 3 & 4), and jewel415. Your comments are always appreciated and keep me writing.**

 _NEXT: Several characters take off to Camelot._

 _The Dark Lady Belle realizes that she's been deserted and reacts_.


	6. Flight

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 6**

 **Flight**

"Well now, are we ready?" Gold asked the group. He was rubbing his hands together as he walked around in the morning chill.

" _We_ are, but why are you here?" Regina asked. She was there with Lily and Emma. On the sidelines of the field were Malificent, Robin and Killian. Regina looked over Gold. He was dressed in black leather, pants, some type of animal, reptile-like skin vest with a high collar over a black turtleneck pullover. He also had gloves tucked in his belt.

"Someone needs to tell this nescient dragonette how to do trans-dimensional flying," Gold told them nodding in Lily's direction. "I mean she's got less than a hundred hours flying time in blue skies. You think she's capable of doing an inter-dimensional transference without a glitch?"

"Listen you . . . " Lily's hackles were up. She hadn't yet transformed and was bristling at the off-handed way this man was treating her.

"Lily," Emma stepped in to make introductions before the situation deteriorated any further. "This is Rumplestiltskin, also known here as Mr. Gold. He's the former Dark One."

Lily was unimpressed. "I don't care if he's the former Miss America. He can't come here and tell me. . . "

"Oh, actually I can, dearie," Gold interrupted her. "I was flying inter-dimensional transferences before you were a hatchling, long before, in fact. Ladies, please, let's hurry this up. If Belle wakes up, she'll come here and she'll make toast. Lily, look at me."

Lily reluctantly looked into the brown eyes of the older man as he pulled her aside, glancing down at his hand on her arm. In low quiet tones, he began to explain in a mix of aerodynamic terms and mystical reasoning what she was to do. She listened, caught up in his near seductive lilt, pulled into his whiskey-colored brown eyes, and surprised when it began to make sense.

"You got it?" he asked her and she nodded. "Good girl," he told her and turned to Malificent. "You weren't planning on making the trip?" he asked.

"Emma and Regina convinced me that I probably need to stay here," she told him. "I can follow later if I have to. Not sure what to do, but I should be able to figure it out."

"As you wish but I have to warn you. Belle will come after you. She'll try to get you to take her to Camelot."

"We figured that. Regina removed my heart earlier. I've got it in a safe place. Belle won't be able to use it to control me," she told him. "And I think I can convince her that I have no idea how to fly between realms . . . because, as of this moment, I have no idea how to fly between realms."

"Mallie . . ." he hesitated. "When she comes for you, let her know . . . let her know . . . that I love her. I love Belle with all my heart. I'm doing this. . . aah . . . I'm doing this _because_ I love her."

"Yeah right. She's going to believe that," Malificent smirked at him. "I think I'll have more luck bonding with her regarding the vagaries and inherent untrustworthiness of men."

Gold briefly touched her on the side of the face. "You always were one of my brightest students."

The rest of the group goaded by Gold's insistence and recommendation for speed continued to review the minimum supplies they had decided to bring with them. They then began saying their goodbyes.

Regina and Robin gave each other a quick hug and a brief kiss before they separated.

Emma and Killian lingered a little longer.

"I don't know about this love," Killian was telling her. "I know you and Regina can handle pretty much any magical force . . ."

"I'm more concerned about you and the others we're leaving here," Emma told him. "Malificent and Blue will remain here and they're both very strong and can offer some protection. Truth is, if Belle decides to show out, I don't know that all four of us could withstand her, even if we were all here. I'm worried about what she'll do, but I know that this is our best bet for neutralizing the Dark One, for saving Belle."

"I understand, but I don't like it either." He gave her a quick kiss. "You know I'll look after Henry. He's got Robin and me and your parents."

"I know." Emma nodded somberly.

"Laaadieees. . ." Gold sounded exasperated. He had finished talking with both Lily and Malificent and was past ready to go.

"Wait a minute," Emma suddenly realized something. "You're planning on coming with us?"

Gold nodded. "Explains the outfit. It gets cold riding dragon. I need to chat with Merlin myself. Now," he paused while Lily transformed, his eyes sweeping over her. He seemed pleased. She was a splendid black dragon, much like her mother but not quite as large. He walked around her, "She's good sized¸ not quite full-grown but that takes about two hundred years. I think she'll be able to carry three." He turned to the other women and asked with a smirk, "Do you want me in the front, the back or shall we make a Rumple sandwich?"

"Oh please," Regina rolled her eyes. She then considered the possibilities, "Let's put you in the front. I'll ride next, then Emma."

As the three began to climb onto Dragon Lily, Gold turned once to the waiting relatives and lovers . "If you see Belle . . . and you will, remind her about the Apprentice and the portals." He addressed Malificent, "Am I correct that you and Regina gathered up all the markers you could find in the Apprentice's cottage?"

Malificent nodded. He continued, "Excellent, make sure Belle knows about them. It may take her awhile, but she should figure it out from there."

"Wait a minute!" Emma had overheard him and nearly shouted. "You _want_ her to figure out how to get to Camelot?"

His answer, if he made one, was lost to the whooshing sound of the young dragon flapping her wings and laboring to become airborne from her level ground starting position.

Malificent, Robin and Killian watched as Lily climbed higher and higher, so high they could barely make her out against the bright morning sky. Then they watched as she folded her wings and began to drop towards the ground, dropping like a stone, moving faster and faster and then . . . disappearing.

Killian looked at Robin. "I guess that means they made it?"

"They went somewhere," Robin agreed. "Let's hope it was Camelot."

Malificent looked at the empty sky for a while. "They made it," she said.

 **Very Long Ago in Camelot**

Two men stood on the crest of hill, looking over the rolling hills. On one side was an impressive citadel, a castle fortress built of stone. It overlooked the river and the roads and all the lands around it. One man was perhaps middle-aged, still hearty and hale and quite handsome with dark hair and eyes. He stood upright and proud. He was dressed like a knight with burnished armor and carried himself like a veteran of war and conflict. Gold placed on the edges of his armor and his sword hilt marked him as a person of wealth. Ermine on the edges of his cloak marked him as a person of royal blood.

The other man was tall, slender, dark-skinned and of indeterminate age. He was dressed plainly in a grey wool cloak. A hood covered his head and shrouded his face. He carried an unremarkable walking stick as his staff.

"It's time old friend. I've lived as a human long enough. I need to go back with my own kind. We seem to be . . . thinning out; there are fewer and fewer of us," the royal knight told the slender man.

"You think your son is old enough? He still seems young to me."

"Everyone seems young to you." The man smiled at his old friend. He looked out at the castle fortress he had helped build. "Ygraine understands. She will help, of course, and I know you will complete your work and manage this . . . this Darkness that is creeping in, making our people despondent and despairing."

"I will continue to work on the problem Uther, as I have for so very long now," the other men replied. "It is a problem I created and one that I will solve.

 **A Little Later That Morning (in Storybrooke)**

Belle stirred. She was lying in _their_ bed. It had been Gold's big bed, the one in his master bedroom, the one with a huge carved wooden headboard. The space next to her was empty. She rolled over and felt for him.

 _Had the man just got up to relieve himself? Perhaps he was fixing her breakfast. He had done that several times during those first weeks of their marriage. He would bring up a tray ladened with food for both of them. They would eat and drink and share; they often ended up dribbling food, at first accidentally but then perhaps purposefully, which they would lick off each other._

 _It had been very pleasurable._

She didn't hear anyone stirring. She _reached out._ She didn't _feel_ anyone.

There was no question. The house was empty.

He'd gone out.

She glanced at the clock. It was a little after eight. Rumple had always been an early riser. Had he gotten up to go somewhere?

 _Where would he have gone?_

 _Without telling her where he was going?_

Belle sat up and closed her eyes, looking for Rumple. She didn't sense him. She didn't sense him _anywhere_.

 _Maybe he'd left a note._

She snapped her fingers and was dressed in an instant. Today she had picked all blues, light blues that matched her eyes – Rumple liked her in blue.

She went downstairs, checking the kitchen, the front door. No note, nothing.

She would go look for him.

Something was going on.

Something that involved Rumple.

Something that took him away from her.

She transported herself over to the Charmings.

Mary Margaret and David were in the kitchen sharing breakfast. "Where's Rumple?" Belle demanded.

They both blinked and stopped, Mary Margaret in mid-chew and David in middle of bringing a forkful of egg to his mouth.

"Belle?" David asked.

"Where's Rumple?" she demanded.

"Where's Rumple?" David repeated. "I don't know. I think he just got out of the hospital. . . "

"Did he?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Worse than useless," Belle nearly shouted at them and disappeared.

This time she appeared in Regina's house, barreling through Regina's wards. She appeared at the bottom of Regina's bed but found it already neatly made up. No Regina. She considered checking in with Henry. He was always a sniveling goodie-goodie, little busy-body, always seemed to be sticking his nose into things that didn't concern him. Seemed to have inherited the worst traits of his parents and grandparents.

She considered but decided she'd wait on reaming out Henry. Rumple wouldn't appreciate her terrorizing his grandson if he'd just popped out to the hardware store and hadn't wanted to wake her.

 _So . . . who could she terrorize without raising Rumple's wrath?_

She smiled.

 _Easy enough._

She went to Killian Jones's little hovel apartment. It only took her a moment to determine that no one was there.

She wouldn't have pegged Jones as an early riser. Perhaps he was humping Emma at her place. Where was Emma's place? Still living with her parents and baby brother? What a loser.

No, wait, she had heard that Emma had a new place – some little two-room apartment somewhere. She wasn't sure she was ready to face Emma.

 _But soon._

She paused. Where else? Who else? Something was going on here and someone knew what it was.

She appeared in Jefferson's house.

"Jefferson," she called to him softly. He was still in bed, lying on his back. "Jefferson!" she called him more sharply.

He snorted and opened his eyes. "Yes?" He struggled to focus on Belle.

"Where's Rumple?" she demanded.

"I don't know. I would have guessed he was with you," he answered honestly.

"You figured out a way for them to get to Camelot, didn't you? You didn't tell me, did you?" she seemed larger than she usually was, and much, much more menacing.

"I . . . I wasn't sure if it would work," he stammered out.

She was at his throat, her delicate hand on his neck. "I can crush your larynx, Jefferson. Think before you answer," she told him.

"Well . . . it's a long shot . . . and probably won't work."

She narrowed her eyes and squeezed her hand, the one around his throat.

Jefferson struggled to swallow. "A dragon! A dragon _might_ be able to make the trip! Once upon a time, they could fly between dimensions," the entire story spilled out.

She released him. "I am not pleased with you Jefferson. When I have more time, I shall return and exact payment for your indiscretion." And she disappeared.

Jefferson took a few moments to clear his head and calm down. He'd just dodged a bullet. Well now, he definitely needed to lay low. He'd pack up Grace and head out . . . to where? . . . maybe they could go camping together, far out in the woods at the furthest reaches of Storybrooke's boundaries.

Belle had returned to Gold's pawn shop. _There was a bloody locator spell potion somewhere in this shop. He'd used it often enough._

 _Pity he couldn't have just once used it to try to find her during that time she was locked up in Regina's prisons._

Something exploded as she walked in and she grimaced.

 _Learn to control that anger, girl,_ she said to herself. _You don't want to explode the locator spell by accident._

She went on into the back room and began to go through Rumple's shelves, at least those with potions. _What the hell kind of organizational system had the man used? Color, potency, dosage, use, size of the bottle? He'd always been able to find things when he wanted them._

She blew out, ruffling her hair in frustration. You would think in three hundred years, her imp would have learned to label things.

She felt herself becoming increasingly angry and stopped to take a breath.

 _Use your brains, missy_ she instructed herself. She remembered it was a pale brown liquid. It was relatively harmless so it wasn't one that he would keep under lock and key nor in a bottle with a skull and cross-bones on it. So, she separated all the colorful and clear ones out and was left with four brown potions.

One was too dark, so she put that one aside. _It would be one of these remaining three . . . probably._

She hesitated before opening them. Some of Rumple's potions had been . . . they had been rather alarming. They could change you into something you didn't want to be changed into, make a body part grow . . . or shrink, reveal truth, make you sleepy, make you . . . angry, or stupid, or amorous, or blind.

She furrowed her brow. That man . . . he had used her desires against herself, taking her to his bed and delighting them both for most of the night and then . . . and then sneaking out . . . to do . . . what? She just could not believe he'd gone out for good purpose. When she got a hold of him, she'd . . . she'd . . .

Belle ran her fingers through her hair. She could feel the Dark One telling her that he wasn't worthy of her. Here Rumple was rejecting all that she could offer him. _How dare he?!_

There was a brief moment. . . but I love him! she told the Dark One.

 _He's not worthy of you. You can do sooo much better, came the answering voice._

But I want _him._

 _You silly girl! How many times will you let him lie to you, deceive you, trick you, uuuusssse you?_

In a fit of pique she grabbed his spare tie (he'd always kept one in the back room, just in case he spilt mustard on himself or committed some other crime against nature). She opened all three of the potions and poured some of their contents onto the tie.

Part of the tie disintegrated. _Well that one wasn't it._

Then the tie lifted up and went towards the door – which was shut. She stopped a moment. She didn't want to run down the street after the enchanted thing. No, that would be undignified. Regina had this way of moving when she was angry. . . it was like she was on wheels. Maybe Belle could manage that.

She opened the door and away went the tie. Belle followed moving swiftly and smoothly after it. The tie turned down a side street and went on into the high rent district part of town, towards Rumple's house (and Regina's which was in walking distance).

 _What if he had gone back to the house with a copy of the newspaper or something equally innocuous? Well, she would deal with that embarrassment later if that turned out to be the case._

She hoped it was what had happened, but her heart sunk as the tie turned down another street, moving away from Rumple's mansion. It was going towards . . . Malificent's place? Regina had imposed on Gold to have her old friend put up in one of the older finer houses that he owned. But it went by Malificent's place. It was headed south of town . . . to the ball field? The ball field? A wide open flat space, just exactly right for . . .

 _Dragons!_

Belle watched as the tie turned on to the field and flew up into the air. It never came down.

Belle knew. She knew.

Rumple had gone to Camelot.

 _That son of bitch!_

 **Downtown Storybrooke (Granny's Diner)**

Robin and Killian sat at a booth with Henry and Roland enjoying breakfast. Henry had taken well to Roland who had just turned four but was bright and perceptive. Roland looked up to Henry like he was the all-wise big brother.

"I was thinking that Granddad might do some sword practice with me today and I think he could get Roland started," Henry was sharing. "If that's okay with you?" he looked at Robin.

"I think sword play would be good for Roland. He's done a little with the bow and arrow," Robin answered.

"I can teach you some tricks with sword play, if you're interested," Killian shared. He had probably had the most formal training among Robin, David and himself. And he had acquired some less than play-fair moves that had saved his life several times during bouts with Pan (who had never played fair).

"Could you?" Henry asked eagerly.

"I don't think your moms would mind," Killian said.

Robin shook his head. "We'll try you with the bow and arrow another day if you like, Henry. It's a good skill to have even if you never have to use it."

Henry's eyes lit up. "Yes sir. I would be interested in that. Grandmom is pretty good with a bow and arrow but she's busy with Neal."

Robin nodded, "Your grandmother was . . . is a crack shot. I'm glad I never went up against her."

Along the counter, Ruby was hanging over Grumpy listening to him grouse about his eggs. He was looking at the eggs on his plate, two over-easy, with some level of disgust. "Like two yellow eyes, just staring up at me."

"It wouldn't be so disgusting if you hadn't tied one on last night," she told him unsympathetically.

"Yeah, like there's so much else to do in this town," Grumpy came back at her.

Ruby laughed at him. "Listen, in this town it is sooo much better when we have nothing to do. Something to do . . . is usually bad news."

At that moment they heard thunder.

And the ground shook.

"Did you feel that?" Granny asked as she went to look out the diner window. Earlier there hadn't been a cloud in the sky. Now it was rapidly filling in with dark, dark clouds. There was lightening crackling all around. It thundered again and again there was a rumbling as the ground shook once more, this time with pictures falling off walls, salt and pepper shakers 'walking' to the edge of tables and falling off, and some empty chairs tipping over. They could hear some crashes happening outside the little diner.

"Earrrrthquaaaake!" Grumpy shouted.

"And a bad lightning storm," Granny said as they once more heard the crash of thunder and the crackle of a nearby lightening strike.

Robin and Killian exchanged glances. _All this at the same time?_

Then it started. At first it was rain, but the rain seemed to get harder, turning into little pellets the size of grains of sand.

"What is that?" Ruby asked.

The sand grains became pea sized.

"Haailllstooorrrm!" Grumpy announced. "That's hail! We're having a hailstorm!"

The peas became as big as grapes pelting down, denting cars and anything else metal. Amid the grape-sized hail were the occasional golf-ball sized clumps, breaking some windows and ripping the leaves off trees and other plants. It continued for nearly twenty minutes, the sound deafening as the pellets bounced off or crashed through roofs and walls. The ground rapidly turned white as it was covered with the hard precipitation.

"Where did this come from?" Robin asked.

Killian looked out the window at the dark clouds rolling across the town, the wreckage from the hail and the debris scattered over the ground from the earthquake, "I suspect that Miss Belle discovered that the crocodile has tricked her and taken off."

"And now, she's a little tiffed," Robin added with understanding.

When the barrage stopped, people timidly came out of their houses and shops to look around. It was only a moment before someone looked up.

Sitting on top of the clock tower, part of it blown off in storm was a small figure, dressed entirely in black with a dark cape blowing up and around it like the wings of a dread angel.

"The Dark One," someone muttered and many of the devout pagans drew the star across themselves with their thumb.

"Do you think we should try to go and talk with her?" Robin asked tentatively.

"Maybe," Killian wasn't sure. "It can't be me. The woman and I have a history. I don't think she'd be happy to see me." He looked up and saw Ruby. "Ruby, you're Belle's best friend," he said trying to sound pleasant.

"No way," Ruby said.

"We could get you up to the top of the clock tower and you could see how she's doing," cajoled Killian.

"I could get turned into a turnip!" Ruby protested. "I might be Belle's best friend but I'm not the Dark One's bff!"

"But you can find out what she's planning on doing," Robin urged.

"Yeah, like is she going to turn us all into turnips?" Grumpy had joined in with the others.

Ruby looked around and saw all the faces looking at her expectantly. "All right, but if I get turned into a bug or something unnatural, you are all going to have to take turns taking care of me."

Ruby stepped out of the diner and shivered. The temperature must have dropped twenty degrees. She picked her way across the rubble in the street and over to the library. It was wrecked, shelves knocked over, books scattered. Some of the books had been torn into pieces. Ruby did not think this was a good sign. She carefully stepped over and around the remains of the library and made her way into the building and up the stairs to the clock tower.

The building was in shambles, walls knocked in, places now open to the sky. Ruby cautiously picked her way over chunks of roofing and wall. Belle had left the clock intact but had somehow positioned herself outside on top of the roof.

"Hey," Ruby called up softly. "Belles? Are you up there?"

There was no answer.

Ruby continued climbing, using the wreckage as an uneven stairway. As her way was more and more open to the elements, Ruby began to feel a strong, cold wind blowing, an aggressive wind that tried to knock her off balance. She slowly, carefully made her way up to the top and came out to see Belle.

Belle was sitting on the edge of the building, her outer cape blowing up into the wind, her hair blowing.

"Belle?" Ruby called to her again.

"Belle's not here," came the answer.

 **As always thanks to my wonderful reviewers (and all those who are reading and favoriting this story): orthankg1, deweymay, Robin4, jewel415, CharlotteAshmore, juju0268, Erik'sTrueAngel, Grace5231973, ladybugsmomma, MyraValhallah, and Aletta-Feather (Chapters 3 & 4).**

 _NEXT: Gold, Emma and Regina ride Lily the Dragon to Camelot_

 _The enraged Dark Lady Belle continues to search for a way to Camelot_


	7. Realizations

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 7**

 **Realizations**

"Belle's not here." The voice was deep and ragged.

Ruby's blood ran cold. _Who . . . what . . . was she talking to?_

"Am I addressing the Dark One?" she ventured timidly _probably the bravest thing she had ever done._

There was a long pause and Ruby closed her eyes. When she dared open them she looked down and around. Yes, her body was still there. She felt her face. Yes, she still had two eyes, a pert nose and full, luscious lips. Well all right then, she thought she was still Ruby.

"You are," finally the answer came.

"Well, Madame . . . Miss . . . Ma'am. . . Dark One," Ruby began. "Is there anything . . . that we can do for you? Get for you? Anything?"

Again the long pause and finally the answer. "Malificent."

"All righty. I'll just go on back down and see what I can do. Thank you." And Ruby scrambled out of the ruins of the clock tower, down the spiral stairs, and through the carcass of the library as fast as she could move. She stopped at the bottom of the building, looking back and shaking her head. She looked over the remnants of the library, how shelves had been knocked over and books tossed all around. Books were now being subjected to the elements.

This struck Ruby hard. Belle would never let anything damage a book; she would fling herself between a book and an on-coming truck. If it had come to this . . . perhaps Belle had already been swallowed up.

She ran back across the street to the diner. As she broke through the door everyone was looking at her.

"Well?"

"What's going on?"

"What does she want?"

A chorus of questions hit her as she took deep breaths and tried to control her breathing.

"She wants Malificent," Ruby finally managed to gasp out.

"Why?" someone asked.

"I didn't ask," she replied shortly. "Why don't you go back up and ask her yourself?" Ruby was still quite frightened and didn't respond well to the witless question.

"How is she?" asked Killian. He and Robin were sitting in the back of the diner along with Henry and Roland. Henry was entertaining Roland back at their table. He had taken one of the paper napkins and was showing Roland how to fold it to make a paper airplane. It wasn't going well. The napkin was not sturdy enough to maintain the plane's shape and would usually just flop.

Ruby shook her head, "Not good. Whatever is sitting on top of that clock tower isn't Belle. It told me that Belle's not there anymore."

"Oh she's still in there," Killian let her know. "Bae told me how his father would go in and out, especially during the early days. Some moments, he'd be the good father, the spinner and the next, he'd be all Dark One. Once she calms down, she'll be mostly Belle again."

"I'll go get Malificent," Robin said. He turned to Killian and Henry. "Will you two watch Roland for me?"

"Of course," they both replied together. Robin gave his son a quick hug and he took off, jumping into his Dodge pickup truck and taking off.

 **Another Day Far in the Past**

"He was successful in pulling the sword from the stone," the woman told him.

The older man nodded.

"Ygraine has publically acknowledged him," she added.

"It goes according to plan," the man said.

"Are you so sure? Are you so sure?"

"No, but it is the best plan I have been able to devise. I think he will be strong enough, pure enough, brave enough. It is my hope that he may be able to control it."

The woman shook her head, "I wonder if you understand humans. I would think that even the strongest, the purest, the bravest would not manage this burden."

"I hope you are wrong, my beloved." The man stood and walked over to the woman who was holding an infant. "How is our daughter?"

"Perfect."

"Have you decided a name?"

"I think so. What do you think of Sithean Buidhe?"

"Yellow Flower. Excellent. What do her sisters think of her?"

"Ruel adores her, as she has all her other little sisters," the woman told him

 **Camelot in the Present**

Emma knew she was going to have an earache from the cold air blowing over her ears. She was clinging to Regina, hanging on for dear life. She'd ridden a dragon before _with the intent of killing it_ but this was a very different experience. It lasted quite a while for one thing. It consisted of an neck-aching climb straight up and then a free-fall dead drop that had left her stomach up in the air. She was holding onto Regina so closely that she felt like one of them should send the other one flowers when the trip was over. She could only imagine what Regina was feeling hanging onto Rumple.

He was the only one who hadn't screamed during the free-fall. From Emma's limited vantage he didn't upset or flustered or scared shitless or anything. As Lily the Dragon leveled off, she began to fly in circles. Gold leaned forward and may have said something to her. She began to fly in one direction and Emma felt her nausea relent a little. She risked a glance at the ground beneath her and realized that was probably a mistake as the nausea immediately reared its head again.

They were flying above a lush forest, green everywhere. She could see what might be roads here and there winding their way through the trees but no houses. Off in the distance she could see the ruins of a large building, perhaps a castle. Near the castle was a broad field and a river flowing through the low lands. Nothing was growing on the field. Odd, it was as if the plant life was avoiding the area. Lily headed for this, treating it as a landing field. She began to circle, taking herself down slowly and made a graceless landing, skidding and throwing her passengers around. She bowed her head and her three passengers slid off.

"That was nicely done, Lilith," Gold told her. There was a shimmery moment and it was now Lily standing in front of them.

"Thanks," she told him. "I thought the landing could have used some work. It was my first time with passengers."

"I had no idea that flying would be so cold," Regina complained. She glanced over at Rumple who was clad in leather. "You might have given us a heads-up old man."

"No time. We had to get out of Storybrooke before Belle found us. She would never have let us go. Come on, let's go."

"Why? Are we in a hurry?" Emma asked.

"Absolutely. Do you think Belle isn't going to figure out another way to get here. She was a smart woman before the Dark One possessed her. She's a smarter woman now."

"Is she coming after you?" Regina asked.

"The Dark One's coming after Merlin." Rumple gave them a grim smile, "I suspect I'll just be an appetizer."

"You wanted her to chase you here!" Emma said, suddenly realizing why Gold had not just sent them on by themselves.

"The longer she's possessed, the greater the hold the Dark One will have over her until it finally consumes her, as it almost consumed me. The entire curse, the dagger, it was all Merlin's plan, his grand idea of trying to control the evil. It didn't quite work as he had planned for it to."

"What the hell was his grand scheme?" Emma asked.

"As I understand it," Rumple had started walking and the three women scrambled to keep up with him. "And understand, my knowledge is from the Dark One's perspective, Merlin wanted to take a great evil that had come into Camelot, pull it together and contain it. He considered different devices but, for reasons I can't fathom, decided on the kris knife. Maybe because it was small, portable, lethal if used as a weapon? Whatever human possessed it would have to struggle to control the Dark One, as these powers came to be known. Merlin actually believed that humans, at least some humans, would be strong enough to control the Dark Powers."

"That's where he screwed up?" Emma asked. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely sort of thing?"

"Lord Acton," Rumple nodded. " _Great men are almost always bad men,"_ he finished the quote. "Merlin really didn't understand what the power would do to a person, any person. He didn't grasp that the Dark One had so many weapons at its disposal."

"Well, what do we do now?" Regina asked.

"We find Merlin," Gold told her.

"Do we know where to look?" Regina followed up.

"Not really. I heard he'd taken to a tower somewhere, likely one of the islands to the east of Camelot, after his wife died and his children left," Gold said looking around to get his bearings.

"Waaait," Emma began. "Merlin had a wife, children?"

"Not the fairy tale you were taught, eh, Miss Swan?" Gold asked her, smirking. "Yes, his wife was killed and his chlldren . . . well, you know them well."

"I do?" Emma was stumped.

"Let's go. If I remember anything, his tower was to the west," Gold continued. He started walking. The three women looked at each other and with sighs, reluctance and resignation started walking behind him.

Emma was looking around as they walked. "This place looks bombed out. Was there some kind of big battle here?"

"A Great Battle," Rumple told her.

"Where are the people?" Regina asked.

"Gone. The only things that live here, besides Merlin, are the dragons."

"Dragons?" Lily spoke up.

"This became their settling place. I have no idea of where they came from originally. For a while they spread out and were found in many realms – any place that had magic. But they were hunted. Often they were seen as a threat, to be sure, they often were a threat. Dragons can be a rather crotchety group. After the Great Battle, this became the place for them to gather."

"There are other dragons?" Lilly asked.

"I would guess. They're a damnably long lived species – unless of course, they're killed."

"Where. . . where are they?" Lily asked.

"Hell if I know," he answered. "I generally find it advisable to avoid dragons whenever possible," he told her.

Lily was obviously disappointed. By now, she had outpaced Emma and Regina, to catch up with Gold and was walking next to him.

"My mother told me that she knew you," she began.

"Yes, your mother was a former apprentice of mine. Excellent student. A lot of talent. The dragon transformation was the most interesting of her abilities by far, I have to say," he said in passing.

"You . . . you taught her how to use her magic?" Lily asked him, unsure of herself.

"I did. She was well on her way to getting some marginal control, although she likely would have disintegrated herself before she had any real success at the rate she was going if she'd continued working by herself."

"She said you could change into a dragon too," Lily said.

"I could," he confirmed.

"Could you teach me?" Lily asked him timidly. "I mean, do I have any . . . other talents?"

He stopped and turned to look at her. He brushed her hair out of her eyes. "Lily, you must know that I've been stripped of my powers. I'm no longer the Dark One and I can't change into a dragon, conjure a fire ball or . . . well, do anything anymore. I can't even tell you whether or not you have any talent."

"But you still know about magic, don't you?"

"I do, but I would think your mother might be a better teacher than I could ever be or . . . Regina," he suggested.

"I want you," she told him. "You taught these other people. You're the best. Everyone says so."

"I _was_ the best. Lily," he met her eyes. "You have another destiny." And he smiled at her and walked away.

"Another destiny?" Lily ran after him. "What does that mean? What do you mean?"

"He won't answer," Emma called out to her friend. "It's part of that mystique he has. As a great sorcerer he doesn't have to give you a straight answer or make sense. He can be as aggravating as he wants to be."

"And he's pretty damn aggravating," Regina confirmed.

At that moment something dropped from the sky onto Gold. He swore colorfully and batted the thing away but it returned, flapping about him. The women had caught up by then and Emma grabbed the thing that was harassing Gold.

"What is it?" Lily asked.

Gold took the item from Emma, held it up to examine it and announced, "It's what's left of a two hundred dollar Ferragamo silk tie." Something had melted the upper third of the tie.

Gold sniffed the tie. "It's got a locator spell on it and. . . " he sniffed it again . . . "interesting. Something else. Belle must not have known which of the three brown potions was the right spell and she tried all three."

"This is something that Belle did – trying to find you, isn't it?" Regina asked.

He stuffed the tie into his shirt (the leather pants lacking pockets). "This could prove useful." He turned to the women and strode on. "Dearies, we're losing daylight," he called back to them.

They walked on after him, up and down the countryside, following a narrow faded path. It was late afternoon when they crested a hill. The three women stopped in amazement. They had come to the place they had glimpsed from the air, the ruins of the castle set on a hill, over-looking a river.

Rumple had walked on down the hill toward the ruins and took a moment before he noticed they weren't following him anymore. He stopped and called back up. "That, ladies, is or was Camelot. Imagine a tall castle made of white stone. It was magnificent in its day."

"Until Mordred led a revolution against his father?" Emma asked.

"Hum . . . well, more or less that's correct. But Mordred's not quite the villain you've been taught he was. And Arthur is not quite the hero," Rumple told them.

"Are we going to get to Merlin before nightfall?" Emma asked.

"No, but we will want to get to the shelter that the old castle can give us. There are some dangerous wild animals in this area that will be a real threat to us at night."

The three women looked at each other and walked on after him. Regina muttered to herself. " _He's_ in some danger from the dangerous wild animals, the shriveled up old magician that he is, but I'm pretty sure two sorceresses and a dragon can handle anything in this neighborhood."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that Regina," he called back to her. "You don't know what's in this neighborhood."

"I guess his hearing still works," Emma said with a smile.

 **Back in Storybrooke**

Robin had returned with Malificent. The older woman had not been too thrilled to have been summoned by the Dark One, but she impressed Robin with her confidence.

"I was expecting this. Rumple had told me this would likely happen," she had told Robin. She alighted his truck, looking out of place in her manicured pantsuit. As they pulled into the diner, Malificent asked, "Where is she?" She stepped out into the parking lot littered with hail pellets.

Robin pointed to the shattered clock tower. Dark clouds scudding across the sky behind the edifice heralded bad weather blowing in and stood as background to the black figure sitting still on the precipice of the tower wall.

Malificent looked up. "Well, the Dark One always had style. I see he hasn't changed. Or should I call the Dark One 'she' now?"

"Ruby had said that Belle was completely submerged. Apparently the Dark One feels betrayed by Mr. Gold."

Malificent had to smile. "No doubt Rumple gave her flowers, chocolates and made promises he didn't intend to keep. And she woke up this morning and found out that he had left her. You'd think, even if Belle was delusional, the Dark One would have known that Rumple can be a duplicitous, deceitful, double-dealing douchbag. Poor girl." She looked around and up at the clock tower. "I'm supposed to go up there?" she asked Robin just to be sure.

"The Dark One asked for you," he told her.

"All right then," and Malificent set off. Robin was privately impressed with the woman's fearlessness. He would be shaking in his boots if he had been called up to see Belle, the Lady Dark One. He watched as the woman made her way, stepping across the rubble in her designer boots, getting across the street and disappearing into the remnants of library.

Malificent wasn't particularly worried. The only Dark One she had ever known was Rumple and he would rant and rave but he was not one to kill women, except as they might get in the way of a wall coming down or an ocean wave sweeping an area. Of course, now that the Dark One _was_ a woman, she might not have those same compunctions. But then Rumple had told her to expect this. He had known that Dark Belle would seek her out.

Belle had continued to sit on the clock tower. She wasn't raining hail or lightning down on the inhabitants any more but understandably, people were leery of her. She hadn't appeared to have moved, the only activity coming from her was her cape blowing in the wind, the wind that she likely had conjured.

She was musing.

 _How could she ever have trusted Rumple?_

 _Because he said what she wanted to hear. How she was the love of his life, that he would do anything for her, that he loved her._

 _And she had succumbed to his lovemaking, his kisses, his wonderful, talented fingers._

 _Fool!_

 _How could she have been fooled by him? As Belle she had danced to his tune for a long time before coming to recognize his true nature. But as the Dark One, knowing him as the Dark One knew him, she should have been able to see through him._

 _She had to smile. The man was clever, no questioning that._

 _What did he think she would do when she found that he had left her to go high-tailing it to Camelot? Just sit back and await her fate?_

 _Did he think she wasn't clever enough to find another way into Camelot?_

 _She considered the options. By now she had ruled out Jefferson. He wasn't going to be able to tell her anything more. She realized that now. He'd probably die before he gave her any more useful information._

 _Jefferson dying. That was an image she could relish. But she didn't have time for such a piddling task._

 _She had ruled out transforming herself into a dragon. (She knew that this was something the Dark One could do, well, at least Dark One Rumple could do. She just didn't quite know how to do it.) Even if she could, she would have no idea how to make a flight to a different realm._

 _Pity that. She thought she would make a splendid dragon. Perhaps Malificent could help with that._

Belle had spotted the older sorceress picking her way over to the tower. She knew she was on her way up the stairs.

"Dark One?" she heard Malificent call out to her.

"Yes Mallie," she used the Dark One's name for the sorceress.

"You called for me?"

"I did, darling," Belle said to her. "I understand that dragons can fly to other realms. Is that correct?"

"I just learned about it myself, dear. Emma speculated that you, as Rumple of course, wiped it out of my mind with a memory potion. I have no idea how to go about it, you must believe."

"I must believe?" Belle questioned. Belle looked over at the other woman. Her dark sight confirmed what she suspected – Malificent was without her heart. It had been removed with or without the woman's permission or awareness. _Just like Rumple to take such a precaution._

"If I knew how to fly to another realm, I would be using the talent to chase after my daughter. She was talked into taking your Rumple, dear Emma and dearest Regina off to who knows where. I'm stuck here."

Belle regarding the woman. She did seem genuinely peeved. _But then this could all be part of one of Rumple's convoluted plans._

"He did give me a message for you," Malificent told her.

Belle looked up. That had caught her attention.

"He said to remind you about the Apprentice and the portals and to let you know that Regina and I gathered up all the markers from his cottage.

Belle sat a moment. There was some sense in this.

 _That Apprentice fellow had drawn portals. They sometimes went between magical realms, but also sometimes to non-magical realms._

 _Very promising._

"Where are these markers?" she asked.

"Regina's kitchen, last I heard," Malificent told her. "Are you going after the little shit?" she asked.

Belle turned and smiled. "I am. I don't want to kill him . . . maybe . . . just hurt him a little."

"Be sure to sell tickets. A lot of us would pay to see our Rumple taken down a couple of notches."

Belle leaned toward Malificent, "I'm afraid I'll be dealing with him in private, darling. Thanks for the information."

Belle stood and stretched and then . . . she vanished from the clock tower.

First she tried Regina's. Her wards had been re-set and were much more powerful. They took a little more effort to tear down. Fortunately, Regina had been Rumplestiltskin's student and there were enough of his memories left that allowed Belle to dismantle them in a heartbeat. There was no one home so she wandered without any self-consciousness from one room to another. She found markers but couldn't be sure if they belonged to the Apprentice or to Henry or even to the little cute one. Belle took these along with a bunch of mismatched marking instruments she found in the kitchen.

She took herself out to the cabin. It was set apart from the town and tended to be a quiet place. Rumple had always delighted in its seclusion and would use it from time to time for mischief _or for pleasure_ \- _taking her there on several occasions_. It had a better feel to it for the Dark One than many other places in Storybrooke.

Belle began to test out each and every marker, concentrating, focusing on drawing a portal. After more than an hour with absolutely no success Belle found it difficult to control her temper.

She ended up throwing the markers across the room. She considered blowing up the place but changed her mind. There were some pleasant memories connected to the place.

Maybe she should just sit and rest for a bit.

It had been a trying morning.

She conjured Rumple's whiskey and poured herself several fingers. The Dark One did not become drunk or even buzzed, well, at least not from alcohol. She drank it because she enjoyed the burning sensation as it trailed down her throat.

As she sat quietly recalling everything she could about the Apprentice, things she had known as Belle and things she knew as the Dark One, she suddenly had an idea.

Not just anyone could draw the portal. It had to be the exact right person, someone who had a special gift with pens and markers and such.

Belle took another drink. She smiled. She knew who the exact right person was.

 **Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the past chapter (as always so appreciated): Erik'sTrueAngel, The Golden Hawk (Chapter 1), orthankg1, Robin4, deweymay, Grace5231973, ladybugsmomma, MyraValhallah and CharlotteAshmore.**

 _NEXT: Gold has interesting heart-to-hearts with each of his three companions and discovers something about himself. Belle continues to pursue her quest to find a way to Camelot._


	8. Connections

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 8**

 **Connections**

 **Camelot Present Day**

They had made their way into the old castle, picking their way inside the main curtain, into the bailey and then making their way into what was left of the main keep. While still a more or less intact structure, it was in serious disrepair. There was debris all over the place, great holes in walls, broken furniture, vines crawling inside the building. It looked like the place had been bombed, then abandoned for a while with Nature slowly moving to reclaim the structure.

"We'll spend the night here," Gold had told them.

"Where? How?" Regina asked. She was looking around at the stone floors, the open windows, the plant life that was winning the struggle to grow between crevices.

"I suggest you use your magic or it will be an uncomfortable night for us all," Gold told her shortly.

Regina sucked in her breath feeling some irritation with the man. "All right then, beds all around," and she raised her hands to conjure the sleeping accommodations while she focused herself on the concept of _sleeping comfortably_.

Four camp cots, with thin mattresses and thinner pillows appeared.

"That's the best you can do?" Gold asked her frowning at the results of her efforts.

"Not what I was thinking of, but this is what we got. Any sheets or blankets?" Regina asked, surveying the meager results.

Emma stepped up. "No, but I'll give it a shot," and she too raised her hands for a conjuring. Rough sheets and scratchy mud-brown blankets appeared. Emma looked them over and shrugged, "Yeah. This should work for tonight."

"You're easy to please," Gold remarked to Emma. "I suspect our Regina is not so happy with these accommodations."

"Well, I've spent some nights in worst places," Emma told him, unconcerned with the meager sleeping arrangements

"So have I," Gold told her. He looked around, "Much worse."

"Well, I haven't," Regina said and she flounced onto the cot which was nothing more than a thin mattress set on a wire frame.

Lily had been standing by looking out of one of the open windows, looking for anything unusual. She turned to join the others, having missed the exchange. When she came over, she looked over the metal cots. "These are nice," she said.

Gold had to smile at her. "It would seem Regina, that you are the only one who's never had to deal with meager lodgings."

Regina glared at him but made no response.

"Anything to eat?" Lily asked him.

"Ask our magic users. See what they may be able to come up with," Gold suggested.

"Why don't you try something?" Regina was sitting with her arms folded, embarrassed about her failed bedding attempt.

It was Gold's turn to glare at her. He turned back to Emma, "Something simple, my dear. Any suggestions?" he asked.

"How about a hamburger from Granny's?" Emma suggested.

Everyone shrugged and nodded. Emma took another turn and, closing her eyes, the familiar red rimmed white plates with the burgers appeared all around.

"Not bad," Gold told her. He then lifted up the top bun and sighed. "No extra pickles?"

"Get 'em yourself," Emma told him wearily.

"Why don't you try, Gold. See if there's anything left." Regina encouraged him.

He shook his head. "I've tried. I can't even do a fuckin' fireball. I _know_ what to do but there is just no . . . no push, no energy, no magic. I haven't been able to get anything to work."

"So you can't do fireballs," Emma told him. "Maybe you can do pickles."

He sat on the edge of the cot, looking alternately at the three women and at his plate. He held his hand out and an odd green glow began, very slight, very subtle. He was panting, out of breath by the time he took his hand down. He then checked under his bun.

He looked up.

"I . . . I have extra pickles," he said, as if he could not believe what he was seeing. "I have extra pickles!"

"Good job. You can conjure food, but not fireballs," Regina said as she began to eat her supper.

"You don't understand!" Gold told her. He stood, setting his plate aside. "This is harder, this _should_ be harder than fireballs, at least for me."

"Maybe you're not a fire elemental anymore," suggested Emma.

"Then what am I? A pickle elemental?" he asked her frustrated. "I don't understand what is happening. I don't understand what I did."

"You told me you didn't have magic anymore," Lily was right on him.

"I didn't! I've been trying to conjure fireballs but couldn't even get a spark. Where is this coming from?" Gold was truly bewildered.

"Perhaps magic is a gift that once awakened cannot be taken away," speculated Emma.

"Perhaps your magic was stunned, the same way you were and took a little while to come back," Regina proposed.

Gold was smiling. "It doesn't matter. I have access to power again. I don't know what I'm doing or how I'm doing it, but . . . . Excuse me ladies," he got up and left the broken down tower room they were sitting in.

"Where's he going?" asked Lily.

"Probably to try to conjure up a bottle of Johnny Walker and a spinning wheel," Regina told her. "He'll get drunk and spin all night."

"What?!" both Emma and Lily asked.

"Rumple used to spin to . . . balance himself, to calm himself down. Anytime he was upset or excited, he would spin. Gold, on the other hand, would drink about four fingers of his favorite liquid courage. To discover he now has magic, something he thought was gone. . . yeah, he's gone out to drink and spin."

The other two women shrugged and then picked up their hamburgers.

"These aren't bad," Regina complimented Emma.

"Yeah, I am happily surprised. Magic feels different here," Emma responded.

Regina agreed, "I felt like it was slippery. I couldn't quite get a hold of it, pin it down."

"Me too," Emma concurred. "You think that's why he can't throw fireballs?"

Regina shook her head. "I don't think so. Anything to do with fire was extremely easy for him, took no effort at all. It's like that part is gone with the Dark One."

"And he's been left with . . . I don't know," finished Emma.

The three women finished their suppers. Emma and Regina got up to explore the immediate area and, between the two, had constructed a private area for a mini-bathroom with an instant composting facility and a shower. Lily had sat on her cot and after watching the two alternately bickering and working together, she had gotten up. Gold had still not returned.

Lily went looking for him, bringing his now cold hamburger with her and, true to Regina's prediction, after going through a couple of corridors and a set of stairs, she found him at the bottom of the castle remains, sitting in back of a spinning wheel and next to a small table. He was spinning and spinning. He'd stop occasionally to take a drink from a glass next to a bottle that were sitting on the little table.

"Is it nice? Is it nice to have magic again Mr. Gold?" Lily asked him.

He looked up and with a careless wave of his hand, conjured a small three-legged stool. Lily sat down next to him on the stool, placing the hamburger next to him.

"It is," he answered slowly, absorbed in his spinning.

"People have told me about you," Lily began. "They've said that you're very dangerous."

He gave her a sideline look and gave her a slow nod.

Lily continued, "They've said how you were a master manipulator, someone who would make deals with people and always come out ahead. They said you never broke a deal and no one ever broke one with you."

"There was just one deal that I broke and I've regretted it for over three hundred years."

"Sorry. That's a long time to carry around regret." Lily sat next to him. "I've made bad decisions all my life, every time, every turn. If there was a way for me to shoot myself in the foot, I'd go for both feet. I never had a break. I never got an even chance. I thought it was just how it was."

"But then you find that you were given a double dose of darkness."

Lily looked down. "Yeah. I kept . . . trying to accept that it was me, that I was the one making the bad decisions."

"But it wasn't you."

"Oh, I wouldn't go so far as to say that," Lily told him. "I mean, ultimately, I was the one who did what I did. I often knew I was doing the wrong thing but would go ahead and do it anyway. I still have to take the responsibility for things I did. That was the hardest lesson to learn. To quit blaming my stars and step up and say, 'Yeah, I did it.'"

Gold stopped spinning and looked at Lily. "That's a lesson I don't know if I ever learned. I always had reasons that made what I did all right . . . even though sometimes I knew I was doing something wrong. I made a lot . . . a lot of bad decisions."

"Well, all you can do is decide that today you'll try to make the right decisions, the right decisions for the right reasons."

Gold went back to spinning. Lily watched him entranced.

"That's so fascinating. What is it that you are spinning?" Lily asked him.

"Well, I just gathered up some of the straw and some dead plant material, weeds and grasses and such that were lying around," he began.

"OMG! Is that . . . is that coming out . . . is that . . . is that _gold_?" Lily asked.

Gold smiled at her. "Miss Lily, this is what I do," he told her softly. "I make gold."

"Wow. That is amazing." She sat for a while watching him spin, mesmerized by the spinning, spinning wheel. "Will you teach me?" she asked him quietly.

"How to spin or how to do magic?"

"Yes, teach me magic, please," she asked.

"You know . . . I'm not at full strength . . . and I don't. . . I don't know exactly know what I'm doing."

"I know, but I . . . I trust you."

He stopped spinning and looked at her. He took several breaths. "All right," and then he stood and motioned for her to take his place in front of the wheel.

"You want me to spin?" she was puzzled. "You aren't going to have me wave my hands in the air?" _Gold shook his head_ "or get a magic wand?" _Gold shuddered_ "or learn some magic words?" _Gold rolled his eyes._

"No dearie, you're going to learn to spin gold," and he sat down behind her, close enough that she felt his body along her back, his arms wrapped around her, his hands on top of her hands. He was warm and calming. His voice reverberated in her ear, a soothing sound. There was an earthy, spicy comforting smell that emanated from the man. With another man, she might have felt a sexual attraction but here, with this man . . . she felt more protected and . . . taken care of . . . like she was a little girl in her father's arms.

He murmured words of direction and encouragement and Lily listened and focused her energies. It wasn't long before slivers of golden threads began to appear, sometimes reverting back to the straw of the substitute roving, sometimes producing full-fledged golden strands. She was excited.

"I've never done anything like this. This is remarkable! You're the best teacher ever!" she told him and Gold was surprised to see tears pooling in the eyes of the austere young woman. She stopped to wipe them away. "I've . . . I've just never had anyone take out time to treat me special." The tears continued to come and she found herself turned and sobbing on his shoulder.

"Lily," he patted her. "Lily," he called her name again.

"I'm sorry. I just . . . since coming here . . . everything's changed . . . my mother . . . she's really tried hard . . . but . . . this is the first time I felt . . . that someone . . . besides my mother . . . cared anything about me." She pulled back. "I asked Mal if you could be my father and she . . "

Gold was shaking his head.

"She said that it wasn't possible. That you and she . . . had never . . ."

"I would have liked it if you were my daughter, Lily. Having a beautiful, intelligent, strong, brave daughter . . . what man wouldn't want that?"

"Do you know who my father is?" she asked him.

He again took several breaths. "I do. But I think it's important that you figure it out yourself." When Lily's face contorted as if she was going to cry again, he continued, "You are very close. You'll get there."

"And until that happens . . .?"

"I'll continue to teach you," he promised.

Lily gave him a hug and left him, wiping her face before going back up the stairs.

He returned to his spinning for a while. "Come on out dearie. I know you're there," he finally called out.

"Well, that was cozy." It was Regina. "I guess, you're feeling better about things now that you've got your magic again."

"I've got _some_ magic. But," and he hesitated. "It feels _different_. It's coming from some place I'm not so familiar with, some place within me."

"Is it light magic?" Regina asked. "I know when I first started pulling on light magic, it was _very_ different."

"Well, I guess that's where I am now," he told her. "I'm not sure what I can do, what I can't do. Not entirely sure how it works. I've got a good mastery over _things_ , but nothing over _energies_."

Regina nodded. "Join the club. I'm still learning how it works. In some ways light magic is easier but in other ways, it's _sooo_ much harder. It works better if you're doing things for other people. "

He smiled at her. "So the student is now the teacher?" he asked her.

"Maybe so," she smiled back at him. "I'm glad you got your magic back," she finally told him. "You coming on to bed any time soon?"

"In a while," he answered and was again left in the quiet twilight. He took another drink and began spinning again. It was quite dark outside before he heard someone else speak.

"I've never seen you do that."

He recognized Emma's voice. She was standing in the shadows.

"Really? It used to be my livelihood," he told her. "Except I just made wool or linen."

"Were you any good?" she asked him, stepping out from the darkness.

"I was excellent. My father dumped me with some elderly sisters who taught me how to spin. They thought I had real talent and taught me everything about the trade, from shearing sheep to dying wool to the spinning. I find it relaxing and comforting to spin."

"Takes you back to a happier time?"

He nodded, "Probably."

Emma watched him a while. "You know Belle is going to figure out a way to get here and come after us," she finally said.

"I hope so."

"You mean for her to come after us?"

"Better to get her out of Storybrooke as quickly as possible."

Emma was shaking her head. "Your mind. You're always thinking and planning and . . . nothing is ever simple for you, is it?"

He smiled and conjured a glass for Emma. "Here, have some." And he poured her some whiskey.

"Thanks." She took the glass and sat down on the stool next to him. She took a sip. "Damn. This is good stuff."

"The best," he told her.

Emma sat quietly for a while watching him spin. "You make that look easy."

"It is easy . . . for me . . . now," he told her.

She watched him for a while again. "You and Dark Belle got kinda close."

Gold stopped spinning and shook his head. Emma waved him off and went on. "You got close and then you left her, making it look like you had abandoned her, knowing that would piss her off. Then you get us and get to Camelot but you leave some clues so that Belle can figure out how we got here, so she can follow. You want her here, not just so she doesn't wreak havoc in Storybrooke but so that she and Merlin will . . . what? You think Merlin might be able to take the curse out of her?"

"Hope so. He created it. I'm hoping he understands it well enough to control it."

"But you don't know, not for sure."

Gold stopped again and closed his eyes. "The future is very difficult to sort out. There are so many possibilities and getting things to make sense . . . it's very difficult. There are a lot of things that need to go a certain way for things to work out right, Miss Swan."

"You always call me Miss Swan, never Emma," she said to him. "Why is that? I mean, you always call Regina and Lily by their first names."

"Because you are a princess, Miss Swan. A real and for true princess. Not just by birth, but by character and disposition. And you are the mother of my grandchild. That deserves some respect."

Emma sat quietly. "Sometimes you frighten me. And I'll never understand what Belle sees in you. But sometimes . . . I . . . see this man . . . who did everything he could to protect his family, who sacrificed himself for his family. And I . . . respect you."

He had stopped spinning. "In another world perhaps, Miss Swan, you and I might have been more to each other. But here we will both settle for a relationship based on mutual respect."

"I would like that," she replied. "It's time for us to cash it in. I'm gonna grab some Z's."

"I'll be up in a bit," he told her.

 **Storybrooke The Next Morning**

Belle stood outside of Regina's house. She had returned to Gold's Victorian for the night and considered her next step. Her first impulse had to been to blow in and take charge but then the Belle-part of her had risen and provided an alternative course of action.

She needed to make a plan.

Yes, yes, the Dark One could listen to Belle. She was very wise, very clever. She was a clear thinker also. She knew exactly what she wanted.

The Dark One was impressed.

Belle knew what should be done next. She knew _so much._

Yes, the Dark One would listen. The Dark One would do as she thought, as she asked.

Soon enough, Belle would have her consort (although she would have to let him know how disappointed she was in his behavior), would have her power, would have what she desired, what the Dark One wanted.

Belle stood quietly outside of Regina's house.

It was early morning. Soon, the boys would be up. Roland and Henry. She closed her eyes. Yes, yes, she could tell where Henry's room was.

Belle waited.

It was a while later. Inside the house they had eaten breakfast. Robin had taken care to feed both boys. Soon, soon they would be coming out. And when they did. . . Killian and Robin were with them.

She frowned.

Belle, wearing a short brown wool skirt, a lacy blouse, tights and high heels, ran up to them, "Henry, Henry, I'm so glad it's you! I need your help!"

Killian stepped in front of Henry, putting himself between Henry and Belle.

"What do you want with him?" Killian asked her. Robin also had stepped up, putting himself between Belle and little Roland.

"He can help. Henry's The Author!" Belle said urgently.

"Grandma Belle?!" Henry was looking around Killian at her. This did not appear to be the Dark One. This was his step-grandmother, the sweet, mild-tempered, clever Miss Belle.

Belle spoke to him directly, "Please, please, we need your help! _They_ need your help. We have to cross over and you're the only one who can help. Come with me. Please." And she held out her hand to him.

Again Killian got in the way.

 _Belle didn't like Killian Jones. The Dark One didn't like Killian Jones. He had hurt Belle . . . several times. He had tried to hurt the Dark One . . . several times. He had hurt Rumple . . . several times._ She decided not to waste any time with him and waved her hand.

All in the same moment, she took Henry's hand, enfolding him in purple smoke before Robin could intervene or respond.

When the smoke cleared, in Killian's place sat a very large, very warty, very disgruntled frog.

Belle and Henry materialized at the cabin.

"Henry, they're in trouble! I've had a vision! I know I'm not managing these new powers very well, but I did _see_ something," she talked quickly, her pretty face reflecting her concerns. "Your moms, both of them, they're in some trouble and they need help."

"What can I do?" the young man asked. "What can I do?"

"You can draw a portal, a doorway to Camelot, to get to your mothers," Belle told him, her blue eyes wide with anxiety. "I have these markers but, of course, they won't work for me. You . . . you are The Author. _You_ need to be the one who draws the portal."

"What do I do?"

"Well, we have a number of markers that we'll have to go through, but one of them should work. You will need to pick up each marker and draw the outline of a door. Be sure to be thinking of your mothers and how much you love them as you try to draw the door. If nothing happens, we'll know that the marker you were using is not the right one. Do you think you understand what to do?"

"I need to air-write a doorway," Henry told her. "And then, we see if anything appears and if it does, if it might be Camelot where both my moms are."

Belle beamed at him. "Such a bright boy. Father's side of the family I would think that. Your mother's family are brave and strong, but . . . not the sharpest knives in the drawer," she said as much to herself as to Henry and then she stood back and watched Henry.

It was tedious going. Henry would pick up each marker, pen, pencil, or crayon and begin to draw in the air. He often would close his eyes, helping himself to concentrate, before beginning.

"I feel rather silly," he said to Belle after about his fifteenth attempt.

"Patience, dear boy. That is what will win this game. One of these will do the trick and you are the only one who can make it work."

"But what if we don't have the right marker or I'm not thinking just the right way at the right time or I'm drawing with the wrong end or there's something I'm supposed to say before I start or . . . "

Whatever he was going to say was lost in the silver line that appeared in mid-air as he drew.

"Wow!" Henry stopped drawing to step back and look.

Belle stepped in, "Keep going. I think you've found the right marker."

Henry nodded and eagerly turned and completed the drawing. Inside the 'door' everything shimmered.

"How do we know it's a doorway to the right place?" Henry asked. "I mean, it could go anywhere."

"Oh, it's the right place," Belle assured him. She was standing by him shoulder to shoulder. She turned and smiled at him looking him eye to eye. "Shall we go together?" she asked him.

"You want me to come?!"

"Of course. You're the only one who can draw the portal and at some point, we all might like to come back to Storybrooke," she said, smiling gently at him. She took his hand and together they stepped through the portal.

 **Thanks to all the reviewers who came through (despite the fanfic server meltdown): MarieQuiteContrarie (Chapters 4, 5, 6 & 7), ladybugsmomma, orthankg1, Aletta-Feather (Chapters 5 & 6), Erik'sTrueAngel, deweymay, and MyraValhallah and thanks to all those who read and follow (and favorite) this story.**

 _NEXT: Gold and the ladies have their journey interrupted_

 _Belle and Henry begin their journey_


	9. Truth and Stones

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 9**

 **Truth and Stones**

 **Many Years Ago in Camelot**

The lovely Lady Nimue sat with her beloved, watching him spin. She knew him well, better than anyone else.

"What is bothering you, my darling?" she asked him.

The man looked up. "Why would you think there is something bothering me?" he asked her.

"Because you have been spinning for nearly three days now without a break. I can tell, you are worried, very worried."

He stopped spinning and smiled, "You know me so well, my darling."

She waited patiently for him to speak again.

"It's not working the way I expected it to," he finally whispered.

She nodded. She knew he was talking about the kris knife, the ugly cursed item that he had given into the care of young King Arthur.

"I thought he was strong enough, pure of heart, without malice, jealousy, any of the other human foibles that others of his kind struggle with."

"But . . .?"

"I see him changing, changing before my eyes. Oh, he started out so noble, so right. He was able to pull all the different factions together. They wrote just and fair laws that benefited knight and peasant alike. It was such a shining moment, a wisp of glory. It was everything I had hoped for and believed in. But slowly, the Darkness is taking over his heart . . . Oh, Nimue, it may consume him. I wonder now, often, what have I done."

Nimue made no reply. She went over to her beloved and held him.

 **Early Morning in Camelot - Present Day**

Gold sat up in his cot. _Shit! Even in his weakened magical state he could sense Her. They probably shouldn't have stopped for the night but pushed on through to Merlin's tower. But he knew griffins and basilisks were once quite common in the countryside and, as far as he knew, the Questing Beast was still wandering the area. It was immune to magic and its bite was certain death. Moving around at night was asking for serious trouble._

"Get up everyone!" he called out, launching himself from the bed and then, in a burst of agony, dropping down to the floor. "Son of bitch!" he shouted, grabbing his knee, contorting his face into a mask of pain.

Regina was up first. "What?! It's your knee," she pronounced quickly surveying the scene.

He glared up at her, massaging the offending joint. "Apparently, Belle took off her healing spell once she hit Camelot. I underestimated her. I didn't think she would know how to do that. I didn't think she would do that." He tried to pull himself to a stand and just managed to get himself onto his cot.

"Are you able to heal it yourself?" Regina asked him coming over to him.

He moved his hand above the knee. It glowed an anemic pale lavender. Apparently nothing happened. He looked at Regina and shook his head.

"Well, then, let me try," and she held out her hand. Emma and Lily had gotten out of bed by this time and had joined Regina. They watched as Regina's hand glowed with the familiar purple healing spell.

Gold flexed his knee but immediately grabbed it, grimacing in his pain.

"It didn't work?" Regina was surprised.

"My guess is that Belle also put a geas on the knee so that it won't respond to a magical healing spell. We'd have to remove that spell before we can heal the knee."

"Do we know how to do that?" Lily asked.

Regina and Emma looked at each other and shook their heads. Gold shrugged. "No, it would help to know exactly which spell she used and then we'd have to use a lot of power that I'm not sure we have, power that I am sure we can't spare."

"Emma you want to take a crack at healing him?" Regina asked. "You've been able to do some pretty impressive things."

Emma was shaking her head, "I'm no healer. I've tried before and it's been dismal." She paused. "I may have a better idea." She closed her eyes and held out her hand. There was a shimmer and single elongated pinkish pill appeared. She handed it off to Gold, "OxyContin, 20 milligrams. That should fix you up for a while."

"Aren't you supposed to have a prescription to offer me one of those? Some role-model-police-officer you are. People expect me to be a reprobate," he said but nonetheless, he popped the pill with one hand and with the other he conjured his walking cane. He pulled himself to a stand wincing but nonetheless getting there. "Ladies, we need to go."

"Belle's here then," Emma had managed to pull on her shoes.

"Can't we at least get some breakfast?" Lily had on her shoes and her jacket.

"I'm going to want to change," Regina told him still without her shoes or her jacket.

"Belle is here. She's figured out how to get into Camelot and she's coming after us. We've got to be going," he told the women and slipped his own shoes on and then his vest and jacket. "If you're hungry, conjure some power bars or a bowl of oatmeal, but let's get a move on. NOW ladies."

Gold was already on his way out, moving remarkably fast for a crippled man in pain. The women scrambled to finish dressing and ended up scampering behind him pulling their fingers through their hair.

"How'd he know she's here? I was watching. He knew she was here before he had problems with his knee," Lily was talking with Emma as she ran her finger across her teeth. Emma had handed her a conjured trail mix bar.

"Beats me. They likely have some sort of psychic connection," Emma told her, taking a bite out of her own power bar.

"How?" Lily asked. "I mean my mother's told me a lot about Rumplestiltskin. He's brilliant and talented. . . but . . . "she hesitated

"He's a bit of a crack-ass," Emma agreed. "Personally I can't imagine how he and Belle ever got together. And after all the crap they've been through, I can't imagine how they've stayed together or, at least, how they broke apart and then came back together. I guess they really and truly love each other . . . "

"But?" Lily asked.

"But he keeps screwing things up."

"Now that I can believe," Lily told her.

 **Camelot – Through the Portal**

"Grandma Belle?" Henry was looking at her. Belle had changed from her cute librarian outfit to . . . something else. She was wearing her blue and black draping silken layers and snug lace-up knee-high black boots. Her hair had completely darkened to black with the occasional blue streaks and her skin had changed to bluish-grey sparkling scales. Her eyes, still a brilliant blue were now notched by reptilian slits.

"What is it, Henry?" she asked him.

"You look . . . different," he told her slowly.

She looked down at her arms and her clothing and then flashed a mirror in front of herself. She looked herself over. "I do," she agreed. "This is so strange. Henry, are you . . . all right . . . with this?" she asked him her blue eyes overly large with the black slits.

"So you really are the Dark One? I knew you were the one on top of the clock tower but I couldn't really see it was you when you were up there. And when you came to me for help, you looked like regular Grandma Belle, but now . . . " Henry was backing away.

Belle hung her head and made just the slightest quaver come into her voice. "I was having a hard time when I was on the clock tower, Henry. Rumple had just told me how much he loved me and wanted to stay with me and then . . . he had left me. I was angry. I made some bad choices. But I'm really sorry. When I get back to Storybrooke, I'll fix everything. I can do that." She spared a quick glance at Henry who had not backed away from her any further. "I . . . really do know that your mothers are in danger."

Henry was walking in a circle around Belle, not quite sure of her.

Belle continued, "Henry, you know that when people first become the Dark One, they use their powers for good things. You've read that in your book. I. . . I got a little off-track with Rumple's betrayal. I want to do good things again, that's why I let you know about your mothers and got your help. I can't reach across dimensions, even magical ones. I have to have some means to travel from one place to another. I needed your help." She looked at him hopefully blinking her eyes several times.

Henry licked his lips. "It's a little hard to trust you, you know."

"I know. I know. I am the Dark One," she admitted. "I'm full of dark impulses and desires and sometimes it's hard to control myself. I need help sometimes, Henry. You . . . you don't think that I would hurt you, do you?" She asked the question as if it had just occurred to her.

"I don't know. I don't think so."

"Good. I wouldn't want you to be . . . afraid of me," and she smiled at him. "Let's go. We have a bit of journey afraid of us."

"Are we going to walk?" Henry asked.

Belle smiled again. "I think I can come up with something." She stood a moment and then waved her hands. There was a flurry of dark green smoke and, when it cleared, there was an odd three-wheeled vehicle.

Henry walked around it. "What is it?"

"Something I once saw in a book. It's an all-terrain vehicle. A two-seater. We'll see how this works over these roads. Nothing's paved you know so it may be rough going from time to time."

"But better than walking," Henry told her and she had to agree. "Hey, can I drive?"

Belle thought about it a moment. As the Dark One she was unsympathetic with mechanical devices. As Belle, she had never been comfortable driving. Gold had taken her out a few times in his Cadillac but it was so big and, to her mind, unresponsive. He had tried her in a couple of smaller cars and she'd settled on a cute little Fiat convertible. He had gotten her a blue one – "to match her eyes." She had struggled even with this car, going up on more than one sidewalk in her time, bending more than a few fenders (hers and others), and struggling with the intricacies of something called 'parallel parking.' Gold had smiled indulgently and paid all her parking tickets and paid for all the damage she had caused.

"Sure," she said to Henry. "You can drive."

"Gee, thanks, Miss Belle," and he eagerly climbed into the driver's seat while she settled into the passenger's place. "Is it okay that I call you 'Miss Belle' or would you prefer 'Grandma Belle' or is there something else?" he asked.

"I think Miss Belle is better than 'grandmother' or 'grandma,'" she agreed, holding on as they took off over the uneven ground, bouncing up and down as they hit ruts and uneven ground. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea._

 **Meanwhile Back in Storybrooke**

Robin and Roland were both standing open-mouthed at the abrupt disappearance of Belle and Henry . . . and Killian. Roland rushed over to check out the large frog.

"Wow! He's the biggest one I've ever seen!" the child shouted out excitedly.

Robin was pretty sure that the amphibian in front of them wasn't just a frog. He was pretty sure that Belle had not taken Killian with her like she had Henry. He bent and picked up the frog which didn't seem to appreciate the attention. With Roland following him, he carried the frog inside the house. He got Roland to watch the animal while he went up and, with considerable trepidation, got down one of Regina's clear plastic shoe boxes that she preferred to use for easy identification of her footwear. He put the frog into the box and he and Roland set off to drop Roland at preschool. His plan was to go to the Sheriff's office to see if David Nolan, formerly an employee of the animal shelter, might have some ideas on the care and feeding of enchanted frogs.

 **Same Day in Camelot**

"I'm getting tired," whined Regina. "Any chance we could get Lily to morph to dragonzilla and we fly to this Merlin's tower or wherever it is we're going?"

"No," said Gold.

"Because . . . ?" Regina followed up.

"Merlin's tower is going to be hard enough to find from our vantage. It's been further disguised to be indistinguishable from the surroundings by air so that the dragons don't find it."

"Dragons? You keep mentioning dragons," Lily told him. "Where are these dragons? I would really like to meet them."

"No you wouldn't," Gold told her. "Dragons tend to be greedy and selfish and self-centered and arrogant . . . and . . . and fiery."

"Like spending the afternoon with Rumplestiltskin," Regina declared.

"Well, we may not have a choice," Emma spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Gold stopped limping forward and turned to her.

"We're being followed and . . . I'm pretty sure it's not Belle that I'm sensing. It isn't malevolent, only curious."

Regina stopped. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was very concerned. "We're surrounded," she announced.

"Fuck," said Gold succinctly. "Ladies, I don't know that I have any offensive abilities. Lily, stay as you are. Depending on who is surrounding us, we don't want to alarm them with a fire-breathing dragon."

"I can't breathe fire yet," she reminded him.

He looked at her and shook his head, obviously disappointed, "No of course not. That would make you very useful. Just great. Everyone together. We keep walking. They'll probably come at us near the top of the hill. Expect them to step out in front and behind us."

"Who are they?" Emma asked. "I had the impression there weren't any people left in Camelot."

"Don't have a clue," Gold told her. "Oh, you three, when they come at us, I do the talking," he told all three women.

"What?"

"Why you?"

"Just cause you're the man?"

All three women protested at the same time.

"I do the talking," he told them sternly.

The foursome walked on slowly, looking around with each step. Apparently those watching them realized that their cover had been blown and from time to time they would catch a glimpse of their watchers. As Gold had predicted, four young men stepped out in front of them as they neared the top of the hill.

"You are interlopers," one of the young men, obviously their leader, addressed them as they came to a halt. He had dark blond hair tied behind his head and pale blue eyes that might have been grey in other light. Except for his scowl, he might have been handsome.

"We're. . . " Regina started but Gold signaled for her to stop.

Gold actually bowed, not deeply, just a bend from the shoulders. "You control this territory?"

"We do," the young man said.

"Then we would plead with you for permission to pass through. We search for Merlin," Gold continued.

The young men all drew back, muttering amongst themselves.

The leader finally responded, "Only vile and evil sorcerers seek the great Merlin."

"If that's true, then you will certainly want to allow us to pass," Gold told him.

The young man wavered. "I am under orders to bring trespassers to my king."

"We don't wish to be delayed," Gold said softly and slowly, managing to sound threatening.

"It would not be more than one night," the young man said, sounding less sure of himself. "Unless you are something other than you appear."

Gold considered. He turned back to the women. "I think it may be in our best interests to go with these young men."

"But what if Belle comes and is able to get to Merlin before us?" Emma asked.

"I think these young men are capable of delaying even the Dark One."

"The Dark One?" the young men had heard this name and had stepped back. "Is the Dark One coming?" their leader asked Gold.

"The Dark One is pursuing us, yes," Gold affirmed.

"Then we shall delay you for the briefest possible time," the leader promised.

The four followed their escorts. They were tall, muscular young men armed with a variety of weapons, including crossbows, bows and arrows, swords, knives, even the occasional mace. They carried shields and wore body armor.

"Where are you taking us?" Regina asked.

"To our king," the young man said.

"We got that part," Regina muttered. "I mean _where_ are you taking us," she said under her breath.

They followed the group. The men moved quickly and Gold particularly struggled to stay up with them.

Emma finally spoke up, addressing the leader of the group, "Listen you yokels, we, and when I say we, I mean our esteemed spokesman, are not all able to keep up with your pace. We need to slow down or . . . carry him or something."

The leader looked at Gold. He was sweating, but was not complaining. "I can keep up. I don't need your help, Emma."

"Emma?" the young leader repeated. "Emma the Savior?"

"Uh . . . . I've been called that," she reluctantly admitted.

"Emma," her name was repeated within the group several times, with some reverence and some fear.

"We have a faster way to get to our king, if you are willing," the young leader told them.

They didn't make any reply but watched him as he called the other young men over and slowly, glittering and shimmering, the leader and three of his men changed into dragons of varying sizes and colors. The leader was a handsome dragon, blue and grey in colors, somewhat bigger than his peers.

Lily stepped forward and, despite Gold cautioning her, she immediately glittered and shimmered and changed into a dragon. The dragons all pulled back from her, circling her. As a group, they surprised those standing by, lowering their heads to her.

In dragon form the leader pulled back. _:A Lady Dragon. We are honored, greatly honored.:_ They heard his voice in their heads rather than hearing him with their ears.

"Well, in for a penny, I'll give it a go," Gold began and he too began to shift and shimmer. In a moment he changed into a great gold-green dragon, considerably larger than any of the other five dragons.

Regina glanced at Emma. "That son of a bitch. Holding out on us again. I didn't know he could do that. Did you know he could do that?"

Emma shook her head.

Regina huffed, "Well, I don't know about you, but I can't do that," she said to Emma.

"I have no idea how do go about it either," admitted Emma.

 _:I suggest Regina and Miss Swan, that you may want to catch a ride with Lily and myself_ ,: they could hear him in their minds.

Regina moved quickly over to Lily. "No way I'm riding Gold," she told Emma and she quickly mounted Lily.

That left Emma with Gold. She would swear his dragon was smirking as she climbed aboard. She held on and in an instance the group had launched and all followed the big blue-grey dragon across the field. The remainder of the party stayed behind, on an anxious alert for the Dark One.

Gold was apparently much better at this dragon flying thing than Lily had been. Emma found the ride smooth and controlled. Knowing that the powerfully muscled beast between her legs was Gold was extraordinarily unsettling. They flew in the opposite direction they needed to go to find Merlin but they covered a great deal of ground quickly, so Emma hoped, assuming they could get out of this, that they would be able to make up the distance.

 _Now why was it that Gold hadn't changed into a dragon and flown them all to Merlin's Tower place?_

 _:Because I wasn't sure until I just tried it that I could manage this particular shift. And, as I had mentioned earlier, we couldn't fly to Merlin's tower because the place is disguised. We would never find it from the air. It's done that way so that he is protected from marauding dragons:_

Emma heard the voice in her head. _:Gold?:_

 _:Who else?:_

 _:You can hear my thoughts?:_

 _:Obviously. You know, sometimes you take after your father and can be rather dense, Miss Swan.:_

 _:Sorry. But this is a lot of new.:_

There was a pause. _:Perhaps,:_ he allowed.

 _:Do you know where we're going?:_

 _:My guess is to one of their stone lairs. I suspect there are only a few left, even in this place.:_

 _:So is it a good thing that Lily is with us?:_

Now Emma was sure Gold was smirking, _:Yes, that did work out nicely, didn't it.:_

They flew for less than half hour but more than ten minutes and, after crossing ocean, came to a large rocky island. There was a flat place on top and the dragons all headed toward what was apparently their landing area. Lily managed to land gracefully this time. Gold made a perfect landing, allowing Emma to slip off and then he morphed back into a human in one fluid motion.

The leader was on them, "Come along please. I will take you to our king." He bowed to Lily as she passed by, something no one in the party missed.

"Looks like they're impressed with Lily," Regina said quietly to Gold.

"They should be. She's a princess," Gold told her.

"Get out!" Emma had overheard.

"Let her find out on her own," Gold cautioned the two.

It wasn't far before the group was guided up black basalt steps up to a stone dwelling. It was clearly a heavily armored fortress.

They were guided inside. There were a number of young men about but no females.

"Well, I can see why they're aren't a lot of dragons," Regina observed quietly. "No lady dragons, no baby dragons."

"My guess is that Lily's going to be a sensation," Emma whispered back.

Gold took the lead. As they were led into the main court building, he went in front. "I know it's hard for you, but please let me continue to be the one doing the talking - as much as you are able to contain yourselves."

The leader they had been dealing with, stopped to talk with several other young men. He glanced back at Gold and the women and then led them into a small room.

"His majesty is . . . not . . . able to receive visitors today."

"He's ill," Gold perceived.

The man was startled and then he slowly nodded. "He is ill. He has gotten worse even since we left on our patrol. We have no physicians among us . . . " his voice trailed off.

"I believe we may be able to help," Gold told him. "The Savior Emma may be able to heal him."

The man considered. "The Savior, yes," he began, "it has been foretold that we can trust the Savior."

Emma looked around slightly panicked. "Gold, you know I don't know diddly about healing."

"But you do Miss Swan," he corrected her softly, his back to the man. "Tell them to bring some red wine in a large goblet."

"Well, a drink sounds like it would be a good idea right now . . ." Emma began.

"It's not for you," he snapped at her.

Emma looked at him, then at the man. "Bring me some red wine in a large goblet." The man nodded and stepped to the door to call out for the requested items.

While the man had his back to them, Gold slipped Emma the tie that had followed them to Camelot.

Emma looked at the tie and then at Gold.

"A third of this tie was doused with some water from Lake Nostra. You just have to soak it in the red wine."

"Lake Nostra?" Emma asked.

"Its waters can heal any ill," Regina told her. "It's been dried up for a long time. Evidently Rumplestiltskin had some set aside."

Emma followed the instructions she'd been given and then handed the wine goblet back to the man. "Have his majesty drink this."

"Thank you," the man took the wine and again stepped to the door of the room to hand off the goblet. He turned back to them. "Please sit down," he gestured. "We will bring you food and we will wait to see if his majesty is able to hold court with you." He waited until they had sat down and then, apparently purposefully, sat down next to Lily.

"I am intrigued by your presence," he told Lily. "We had thought all female dragons were . . . were dead."

"Well, my mom and I are very much alive," Lily told him.

"Your mother is alive! Who is your mother?" he asked her.

"Malificent," Lily said.

The man looked up. "Malificent! I had no idea. His majesty . . . " he stopped himself. "I am very glad to meet you."

Lily was about to ask more questions when someone knocked on the door. It was some food, an unpalatable dip of some kind and hard bread. Emma and Lily both tried some and pronounced the food edible. Gold and Regina both passed on the food. As time passed, Emma and Regina watched Lily and the leader who continued sitting with them. The two weren't talking but kept stealing glances at each other. In time there was a second knock on the door. The man and got up to answer it. He talked a moment with whoever had come to the door. He turned back to them.

"His majesty is already showing improvement. He is much better." His eyes lit on Emma. "It seems you have lived up to your name, Savior. Thank you. On behalf of my people, thank you."

"Always glad to be of help," Emma replied neutrally.

Now the man led them down more corridors and upstairs into a large round room carved out of the stone of the island. There was a high domed ceiling with windows all around. All manner of fantastical carvings of dragons and many things from nature, moons and trees among others, were placed in the walls. The walls had also been hung with draperies and tapestries depicting similar images. The room seemed to be currently doubling as a bedroom and a receiving room. Someone had helped an older man sit up in a large cushioned chair set on a dais. He had been dressed in thick robes and wore soft boots laced around his ankles and calves. Despite his age, the man clearly commanded respect, someone used to being in authority.

"We brought these interlopers, your majesty," the man bowed to the older man. The older man still had sharp, incisive eyes. He had a solemn demeanor which was altered when his eyes lit on his visitors.

"We seek Merlin and have traveled far. We mean no offense to your people," Gold bowed with a flourish.

"I believe I may know you," the king looked closely at Gold. "You don't look familiar, but your voice and your gestures are familiar. Have you been here before?"

"A while ago," admitted Gold.

The man reached out and pulled Lily out from behind Gold. He brought her forward to present to the king.

"This one is the dragon, my lord," he said.

The king looked Lily over. He seemed pleased with what he saw.

"Tell me about her," he directed the man.

"A black dragon, sire. Young, strong . . . beautiful," he added briefly looking Lily directly in the eyes and then dropping his gaze.

Lily looked back at him and smiled.

"What is your name my dear," the king addressed Lily personally.

She managed a curtsey, "I am called Lily, but my name is Lilith, sir," she answered, looking the older man directly in the eye.

"And who might your mother be?" the king asked motioning for Lily to approach his chair.

"A powerful sorceress known in the Enchanted Forest as . . ."

The king finished her sentence, "Maleficent. Your mother is Maleficent." Lily was standing right next to him, standing on a step below his chair.

"Yes sir," Lily answered curiously. "Do you know her?"

"I do, my dear. I . . . lost her." The king brought his hand up to trace along the outside of Lily's face. "You, my dear, you are my daughter."

"And who are you?" Lily asked.

"I am the Dragon King known to human-kind as Uther Pendragon," he answered.

 **Thanks so much to reviewers: Wolf Within, orthankg1, Grace5231973, deweymay, Robin4, NarnianGriff23, juju0268, ladybugsmomma, Erik'sTrueAngel, MyraValhallah, jewel415, and TheGoldenHawk. (I appreciate both the old and new reviewers that came in on this chapter.) Your insightful and kind comments are always appreciated.**

 _NEXT: More about what happened in the long-ago days of Camelot and some history of Rumple's interactions with young Malificent._


	10. Old Stories

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 10**

 **Old Stories**

 **Camelot Late Evening**

Belle and Henry had been motoring along roads never designed to handle a motorized vehicle. There were ruts, an absence of shoulders and the occasional downed tree. They had followed a vague course, moving in the direction that Belle _felt_ they should travel.

She had thought they would be able to _transport_ directly to Rumple but Belle had struggled with what should have been a simple task. It had been easy enough to do when she was enraged, but when calm, she couldn't pull the magics together that she needed. The raw energy, the knowledge were both missing – damn that Apprentice for mucking up the transference as he had; skills, knowledge, the how-to's had all been shredded and so much had been left behind.

Not only that, but the magics in this place were so confusing with so many smells; some were so similar while others were completely foreign. She struggled to sort out Light and Dark, Wild and Controlled, Hot and Cold, Rumple and Not-Rumple. It was primarily Rumple's pain that pulled her along – it had oddly dulled as the day had gone on, but enough was still there and it provided a distinctive magical scent that she could detect. The Dark One had taught her the spells to bring out his pain and coached her how to detect it and follow it. By the time the sun was beginning to set, they had come to the remnants of a castle.

Henry pulled over as they surveyed the castle area. "Miss Belle, it's getting dark and I'm really, really hungry."

Belle who no longer depended on food and could see in the dark as well as she did in the bright sunlight (possibly better), considered. Her Belle knowledge told her that teenage boys needed to eat prodigious amounts and frequently. She did want to continue in Henry's good graces - at least for the time being. "Well, why don't we spend the night here and we'll see what we can come up with to eat? Let's check it out first to be safe. I have no idea what kinds of things may roam these grounds." _Or if Rumple has left any traps or snares._

Henry nodded and pulled the cycle on into the remains of the castle's bailey. They both dismounted and walked into the one feature still standing, the tower keep. They saw four cots around a fire pit, several plates, and a privacy area. Everything had been left in disarray.

"Wow, it looks like someone just spent the night here," Henry said. He looked around more. "And then they just got up and left in a hurry."

Belle had to agree. She went from cot to cot. She sniffed the blankets. Regina, Emma, someone she didn't know but her Dark One memories told her was a dragon shape shifter, and . . . Rumple. So they had been here, she would guess, as recently as last night. They weren't that far ahead.

Belle sighed. She thought about sending Rumple's cot up in flames but decided against it.

"I'll take this one," she announced and settled on his cot.

"I'll go here." Henry took Emma's cot.

"Now what would you like to eat?" she asked him, turning one of her Belle smiles on the boy.

"What can I have?" Henry asked looking around.

"I can conjure anything you want," she told him waving her hands in a movement reminiscent of Rumple's Dark Castle gestures.

"Anything?!" Henry asked her, his face lighting up.

"Ice cream? Granny's lasagna?" she suggested.

"Both of those sound good," he told her.

She waved her hand and both dishes appeared in front of Henry.

He promptly dug in to the lasagna and remarked, "This tastes just like Granny's!"

"That's a good thing, I take it," Belle remarked. She had never been a big fan of Granny's lasagna. Now Granny's hamburgers were delicious with or without extra pickles. _Why not?_ She conjured herself a hamburger with extra pickles.

Extra pickles.

Reminded her of Rumple – the mix of sweet and sour characteristic of the well-preserved pickle, so Rumple-like.

Belle also conjured some iced tea.

Henry wolfed down the lasagna in a couple of bites. Belle wondered if the boy had bothered to chew any of it. Then he started on the ice cream.

"Grandpa likes ice cream, doesn't he?" he asked.

Belle remembered. _There was that warm afternoon when Rumple had stripped her off and then had slowly dripped ice cream on her. He had taken his time then and had licked and slurped and sucked it off of her body. The combination of cold and heat had sent her over the edge repeatedly. She had, with some serious effort, convinced him to lie back so that she could subject him to the same treatment. Duplicating his efforts, she would drip the ice cream on him and lick it off. She had worked her way down his torso, down his stomach . . . . She remembered that his cock was standing at attention by the time she had made her way down to it. She tried a couple of cold ice cream drips directly on him followed by hot tongue swirls. She then put some of the ice cream in her mouth and went down on him. He had yelped and threaded his fingers through her hair, holding on to her while she mixed the sweet creamy taste of the ice cream with the faintly salty, spicy taste of Rumple. He'd lost it with her, spilling himself into her mouth with a groan. It was the first time that she had realized that she had power over him, that she had control and direction. It had been exhilarating._

She startled, "Yes, yes, your grandfather likes ice cream." And she conjured herself a bowl.

"Miss Belle?" Henry was hesitant. "My mothers aren't really in danger, are they?" he asked.

Belle thought a moment. "In some ways, yes, they are definitely in danger."

"But it's from you, isn't it?" he asked looking her directly in the eye.

"It could be, Henry. If they get in my way, if they try to take me down, I will hurt them. I hope it doesn't come to that."

"Am I . . . am I leverage?" Henry asked. "Will you hurt me if they don't do what you want them to do?"

 _Yes, Henry certainly got his brains from his father's family._ "Let's hope we don't have to find out the answer to that question Henry." She told him. "Rumple won't like it if I hurt you and I . . . I don't want Rumple to be upset with me."

"You still love him, don't you?" he asked her.

"I do," she admitted. _And deep inside she heard someone yowling. Oh shut up! she told the miscreant Dark One. You knew Rumple and I had True Love when you decided to possess me._

 **Earlier that Morning – Storybrooke.**

Robin had located David Nolen in the Sheriff's office. He held up the shoebox.

"What is that?" David asked, leaning forward to look inside the clear plastic box.

"It's a frog," Robin told him shortly.

David looked at him. "And . . .?"

"Do you know anything about the care and upkeep of frogs?"

"Why?" David got up to look the frog over. "Is this something Roland has as a pet?"

"No, this is something Belle left me . . . us . . . with. This . . . uh . . . is Killian Jones."

"Really?" David was slightly amused. He knew quite well that Belle didn't like the man. Apparently he had gotten in her way once too often. To be honest, he wasn't particularly fond of the man, but he knew his daughter cared about him. "Does he know he's Killian? I mean, is he sentient? At all?"

Robin shrugged. "Beats me. He didn't like it when I picked him up. But he's not reacted to anything – just sits there."

"We should probably get an aquarium and put rocks and water and stuff in it," suggested David.

"Okay. What do frogs eat?"

"Frog Chow? I would guess – insects, bait?" David made several suggestions.

"Well then, I guess I'm off to get some rocks and stuff from Game of Thorns. Maybe Moe knows something about frog upkeep," Robin thanked David and went off to find some rocks and foliage suitable for an enchanted frog.

 **Camelot – A Long Time Ago.**

"I'm so worried. Something evil has taken root in him. It takes over him from time to time," the young woman was talking with the older man. She ridden over to his humble cottage. She was dressed in finery, finely woven wool with embroidery atop silken undergarments that peaked out from her hem and her neckline. She wore no jewels but had woven some flowers into her hair. She was very pretty, with dark hair and large eyes. She had a creamy complexion and wore a worried expression. "I am afraid of him sometimes and sometimes . . . I'm afraid for him."

"It's too much. I thought he could manage. I thought he could handle it. I've never known another human with such a pure, strong soul." The older man looked out his window. "If Arthur can't manage the dark forces . . . if he is being consumed by them . . . then I . . . I've created a monster."

"Is there . . . Can he ever be free of it?" the young woman asked. "I love him so much but he has taken to accusing me of betraying him. He's pushing me away. He's telling me he's not worthy of love, of my love. He tells me I can't possibly love him because he's a monster." Tears pooled in her eyes. "I don't know what to do," she confessed.

The older man looked back at the young woman. "I . . . I wish I knew what to tell you. If he is so far gone as to reject True Love . . . . It is my fault . . . all my fault." Another thought occurred to him. "Do you have a place to go if it gets too bad?"

"I don't think he would ever hurt me! Do you think it might come to that?" the young woman clearly had not thought it might come to such an end.

"I don't know. If he is being consumed by the Darkness then there is no telling what the dark forces might have him do." _He knew the Darkness would recognize her as a threat, a threat to be removed._ He went over to the young woman. "Nimue and our daughters would take you in. They would take care of you. They, working together with the good men of Camelot, are our best hope of standing against the Darkness."

"I will keep that in mind. Lancelot has also told me that he will help me if I feel that it is becoming too dangerous. And Mordred has offered his help also but, of course, he is not often at Camelot."

"Lancelot and Mordred are both good men. You can depend on them."

"I think so. Lancelot tells me the inner circle around Arthur have begun to have doubts about what has been happening. They don't know what to do," the young woman wiped her face on her sleeve and stood. "You have been helpful. I will keep Nimue and your daughters in mind if it looks like I need to get out."

The older man watched her go. She had mounted the horse she had ridden over to his cottage and left. He stood for a long time. _The inner circle, she had called them. Those brave and true men the young Arthur had gathered around him, those most like him in their purity of spirit._

The trouble was _they_ _ **did**_ _know what to do. They knew exactly what to do. They just didn't want to do it._

 **Moe's Flower Shop – Storybrooke**

Robin didn't know the man. He recalled that Moe was Belle's father and surmised that the man couldn't have been thrilled with his daughter's association with the Dark One. Robin couldn't imagine how he was feeling now that his daughter had taken on that role herself.

"Sir," Robin called and a heavy-set man who looked like he hadn't slept in days came out.

"I'm hoping you can help me."

Moe didn't make any reply.

"I have acquired a frog that I need to take care of. I've been told I need something like an aquarium and some rocks and some foliage. I thought . . . perhaps . . . ."

Moe looked at the frog for a long time and Robin wondered if the man had gone to sleep. Moe finally spoke, "That's a big frog."

"Yeah, it is," Robin agreed.

Moe sighed. "I might have something you can use," and he guided Robin over to some terrariums. "This one is pretty good sized. It's water tight and already has some plants. You could add some rocks to it and put some water in the bottom. That ought to do for it."

"Thanks." Robin paid for the works. As he was about to leave, he had to ask, "Are you all right, sir. You look . . . tired."

Moe gave him a tight smile. "I've very tired, Robin of Locksley. My daughter has been taken away from me yet again by the Dark One."

 _So Moe knew who he was._ "We're trying to save her, sir. A lot of us owe your daughter and we are trying to find a way that she can get rid of this curse."

Moe shook his head, looking dejected and defeated. "You can't defeat the Dark One, Robin. There's no hope for saving Belle."

 **Amid the Dragons – Camelot**

"You're Uther?" Lily responded dubiously. "As in, father of King Arthur?"

"We dragons are a long-lived species," the man told her with a smile. He looked up at the others. "Come, we'll share a meal together." The older man slowly shifted, getting to his feet, waiting a moment to be sure they could hold his weight. He was rapidly regaining his strength as the magical waters saturated his body.

As they followed the older man into a great stone building, they realized that they were surrounded by the young men. There was no overt threat but Emma felt uncomfortable, as if they had been taken prisoners.

"I don't like this place," she said as an aside to Gold.

"They're a prickly lot, but usually reasonable," he told her, "well, sometimes reasonable." He didn't seem particularly anxious.

"You spend much time with them?" she asked.

"A little . . . . After I learned to change into one, I was determined to learn as much as I could about them. They tended to be nuisances in the Enchanted Forest but I realized that most of the ones that we had there were . . . well, they seemed to have slipped in the cognitive department. Most didn't know how to change back to human forms. I suspect some of them weren't capable of changing anymore. These dragons here are different – very smart, very clever. They combine the best of humans and dragons."

"Fascinating," Regina muttered. "Are you now going to tell us that this guy is Uther as in The Uther, Arthur's father?"

Gold looked at Regina and nearly grinned. "Oh yes. At Merlin's urging, Uther took on human form for several years. Merlin had considerable foresight and he knew that Uther and Ygraine's True Love would produce a strong, pure-hearted young man. Merlin's plan was for Uther to begin the process of uniting all the little warring kingdoms and he did just that. But dragons can't remain in human form indefinitely. For that matter they can't stay in dragon form indefinitely. They will end up staying in whatever form they've chosen and lose the ability to revert. And . . . because there are some tasks that are better done by humans and some that are better done by dragons . . . it's good to be able to go back and forth."

"So. . . Lily is Uther's daughter. How did . . .?" Emma asked.

"I don't know how Malificent ever got into the Enchanted Forest but I recognized her for what she was. I found her after she had apparently been in a bit of a scuffle with King Stephan, Aurora's father – except he wasn't King Stephan then, just a young, prideful scamp of a prince. She had been injured and had lost all her memories. I healed her and then I made an agreement with her. She would work for me and I would teach her magic."

"Yeah, you were always very fond of making deals with attractive young women," Regina said caustically.

"Hey, the deal was always for them to _work for me_ not sleep with me. Just because I appreciate having attractive young women around doesn't mean that I was intent on seducing them," he told Regina testily.

"I always thought that you weren't particularly capable in that department," Regina remarked snidely.

Gold paused a moment, obviously mulling over his response. "I was capable, am capable, quite capable. At that time, I was just focused on more important things, even though most people thought I was out ravaging maidens nightly," Gold grumbled defensively. He pouted briefly.

"What happened then?" Emma asked, eager to get more of the story.

Gold relented and continued, "After I saw what Malificent could do, I studied how she did it and found I could copy it. I found out by accident that she could fly between realms when. . . well, we ended up in a place I came to know as Wonderland one day and . . . oh no, that didn't work out too well, pretty nasty place. So we went back to the Enchanted Forest. After I had done some reading about Camelot and the dragons there, I decided we could learn some things by going to Camelot, so we came here for a while. I wasn't particularly welcome, being a sorcerer and all, but Malificent . . . well, she made a friend, a good friend, a really good friend . . . obviously. There weren't very many female dragons left then, so you can guess how popular Lily's is going to be."

Emma looked around. Most of the young men were focused on Lily, that was for sure, who was certainly enjoying all the attention. The young man who had been the leader of the first group that they had encountered stayed focused more on the aged King, hovering near him in case he faltered.

They were all being led into a cold stone hallway. This place also had tapestries hung along the wall, Emma thought as much to keep in the heat as to decorate the place. She was struck by the amount of stone work – stone walls, stone ceilings, stone floors, even much of the furniture was stone.

They were led to a table, carved out of stone, of course. The chairs around the table were heavy wooden affairs, not particularly comfortable, but Emma had already decided these were not people that placed much premium on comfort.

She could hear Uther's conversation with Lily.

"Your mother was one of the most splendid dragons I had ever seen. I had not . . . well, once I had left Camelot and had been pronounced dead I still kept watch over Ygraine until she died. We had been very much in love, so much so, that I wasn't interested in females, human or dragon, for a long time after her death. But when I saw your mother – a great black dragon, strong, an elegant wingspan, beautiful head frills and great heat in her fire – well, I had to have her and we began a rather rocky courtship. She was not an easy conquest I will tell you – strong-willed, self-confident, she was her own dragon. I thought she was splendid. We dragons value strength above all, you must know."

"How did you recognize me?" Lily asked him.

He gave her a dry chuckle. "You look like your mother did at that age. A young dragon, but with the promise of great beauty, of great strength."

"You saw me when we flew in, then?" Lily asked.

"Yes. It's been a long, long time since we were visited by other dragons. The big green-gold fellow I recognize as that duplicitous deal-maker Rumplestiltskin. Not a true dragon but close enough that we gave him safe-passage. I was confused earlier when he came here as he looked quite different, but then I remembered that he was a sorcerer and they are wont to change their appearance."

"Listen," began Lily. "We're here on a mission. Mine was. . . to find my father but the others want to find Merlin. Can you help them?"

Uther did not reply immediately. "Time seems to have slowed here, as if we're stuck in one place. From my own perspective, I would say that I have not seen him in a long, long time and for a dragon that is very long indeed. I don't know that he has passed on however, so it is likely he is still on the little island that he moved to after The Dark War."

Regina looked up, "So you know where he is?"

Uther nodded. "We can fly you in close but we can't fly over to the island. Something stops us – Merlin wasn't exactly a favorite of the dragons, particularly after the magic went wild."

"He probably has wards up," Gold observed from his end of the table taking a drink of some of the red wine he'd been served.

"Will we be able to get in?" Emma asked Gold.

"Don't know," he told her. "I used to be able to break through wards easily enough but my own magic is so different now. Regina has some experience getting through wards. I have no idea what you might be capable of. Perhaps between us. Of course, this is Merlin we're talking about. A lot depends on whether or not he wants to see us."

Emma nodded. "So if he's okay with us then probably we can just waltz on in, otherwise it's not going to be easy. I get that."

"I will give you shelter for this evening and help you on your way in the morning," Uther told the group but then he turned to Lily. "You, my dear, you I hope will consider staying on with us a while longer."

"I would like that," she told him. "So you met my mother when she flew in with Mr. Gold."

Uther smiled. "It was a difficult time for us. We had been decimated. In the Great War, the Dark War, many of us had been killed. Others of us had traveled to other realms and had never returned. Only a few of us remained in our home land. I was therefore stunned when I saw this magnificent black dragon lady flying in the sky. She was with a big green-gold fellow and I assumed they were a pair. But one they had landed I saw that, while she was one of my kind, the male was a wizard."

Lily glanced down the table at Rumple who shrugged. "I was helping her understand the breadth and depth of her talents."

"I couldn't stop myself. I introduced myself in human form, welcomed them to the land and invited them in for a meal, even though one of them was a wizard," Uther looked down at the table at Rumple. "Why do you look so different now, wizard? In dragon form you look the same but as you are now, you look quite different."

"I am quite different now," Gold agreed.

"You were gracious in allowing me unencumbered access to the lady," and Uther raised his glass to the wizard.

"I thought it for the best," Gold admitted.

Emma leaned over to him, "Did you see all this? That Malificent would get pregnant and then, what my parents did?"

"I knew you had potential for good and evil, Miss Swan. I knew your parents would want to take away your dark destiny. That purpose was aligned with my purpose at that time. . . . so yes. . . yes, I saw what was likely to happen."

"And did you see _this_? That at some point, you'd be back here with the dragons with Malificent's child , all of us looking for Merlin?" Emma was trying to wrap her own head around Gold's foresight, what he had once called intuition.

"It's a never ending stream of possibilities, each one capable of affecting others and changing the course of events. It's a bit intrusive sometimes. Visions of the far future are less clear than those that are soon to happen."

Emma gaped at him. "All that stuff going on? Doesn't it drive you mad?"

Gold looked at her and smiled, "Absolutely, Miss Swan. I have to work to keep those thoughts quiet."

"Sometimes," Emma told him quietly, "I'm a bit in awe of you, of what you've dealt with, of what you have going on in your head."

"Yeah, I'm awesome," he agreed deprecatingly. "All that foresight hasn't allowed me to keep my son alive or keep my one true love by my side."

They were led to sleeping quarters. The young man who had changed into a dragon first, the one that had appeared to be the leader in the group, followed to be sure they were all made comfortable. He seemed somewhat sullen and was generally uncommunicative but, of course, that did not deter Emma from accosting him.

"You seemed to know me, calling me Emma the Savior," she said after he had dropped off Regina and Gold.

He stopped. "There is a prediction, a foretelling about you."

"Really? Tell me, please," Emma urged him on.

"It is said that when the Savior comes to Camelot, all will be righted."

Emma digested this. "Wow, anything more here?"

The young man hesitated. "It is said that the balance of magic will be righted and the dragons will thrive again."

"So all that sounds like a good thing. But you don't seem so happy."

The young man looked at her. "It is also said, that there will be a great loss."

"Well, that sucks," Emma said. "So my arrival here is . . . "

"Good and bad," the man told her.

"Hey!" she called after him as he was walking away.

He stopped.

"What is your name?" she asked him.

"Mordred," he answered. "I'm Mordred.

 **Thanks so much to all those reviewers (and new followers/favoriters): orthankg1, Robin4, deweymay, ladybugsmomma, Grace5231973, Erik'sTrueAngel, Aletta-Feather (Chapters 7 &8), Wolf Within, jewel415, and MyraValhallah.**

 _NEXT: Belle and Henry continue their pursuit_

 _Gold, Emma and Regina get close to Merlin_


	11. Poptarts, Porridge and Protection Spells

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Poptarts, Porridge and Protection Spells**

 **Chapter 11**

 **Late in the Afternoon – Storybrooke**

Robin appealed to Granny to take on The Burden of The Frog. Robin was insecure enough about custodianship of an enchanted frog that he wanted help, or at least involvement, from others. He felt there should be some round-the-clock supervision just to make sure nothing happened to it . . . eh . . . him. But talking to Granny, he could tell right away that it would be a hard sell.

"This is a place people come to eat," Granny told him, "not a zoo."

"It adds something to the ambiance," he tried cajoling her. "A conversation starter."

Granny looked over the aquarium and the frog inside. She shook her head. "People don't have any problems finding things to talk about here in the diner." She wasn't going for it. "Why don't you try the nuns? If this is a bespelled frog, they might be the best people to take care of it."

 **The Next Morning**

Belle stretched. She hadn't slept, the Dark One, not needing to sleep, but she had lain quietly on the cot trying to sort things out. The voice of the Dark One was an unrelenting murmur, right now it was in approval of her cleverness. She had started a fire that kept the room at a constant cozy temperature and plumped up the mattresses for herself and Henry so they had spent a comfortable night. She had changed her silks to a combination of navy and black. She'd added a couple of jet and silver necklaces and some dangling earrings.

"You look beautiful, Miss Belle," Henry told her.

"Even with the lizard skin?" she asked.

"You sparkle . . . all over. I bet Grandpa Gold would think you're beautiful too."

Belle stiffened but made no response. Henry had reached an age where he had some sensitivity to female behavior. "Miss Belle? There are problems between you and Grandpa, aren't there? Even though you two have True Love?"

"Why would you ask?" she asked him not looking at him.

"Well, you've said you're kinda mad at him and you changed how you were sitting when I said his name. You got all quiet and stiff-like . . . but mostly because blue sparks came out of your fingertips and a couple of plates shattered when I said that he would think that you're beautiful."

Belle answered him slowly, "I am . . . a little put out with your grandfather at the moment, Henry."

"You're mad because he left you in Storybrooke and he came here to find Merlin?" Henry guessed.

"Exactly," she admitted. _After telling me how much he loved me and wanted to be with me._

"You know he really, really loves you and anything he does, it's because he loves you."

"He doesn't love _me_ , Henry. He loves . . . Belle French. I'm no longer Belle French."

"A lot of you is still Belle. You still like books and iced tea, don't you?" Henry asked her.

"Well, the Dark One can like those things too," she told him.

"Yeah, he . . . uh . . . she didn't before you came along," Henry reminded her.

Belle glared at him. His unrelenting faith in her potential for goodness annoyed her. Maybe she should turn him into a snail or something – not permanently, mind you, just to show him that she was a force to be reckoned with.

She rose. "We'll see," she told Henry. "Let's get going."

"Can't we get breakfast or something?" Henry asked her pulling on his shoes.

Belle sighed. It was really hard being a total badass when one had a trusting teenager in tow. Henry didn't seem to have any fear of her. He seemed to actually . . . like her. She shuddered. "Power bar or poptart?" she asked him.

"Oh, mom never lets me have poptarts," he told her. "Poptart please. Can I get one with icing?"

Belle concentrated and something with pink goo inside and multi-colored sprinkles outside appeared. She tossed it to him.

"Thanks, Miss Belle."

 **In the Dragons' Lair**

Lily had apparently spent the some of the night talking with her father, reminiscing, catching up, re-telling the story of her life, her altered destiny, her finding her mother – well more specifically how the Savior had found her and brought her to her mother. Her father had listened, often overcome with sympathy.

"You do know that if I had had any inkling of your existence, I would have reached out to you. Dragons are very family oriented. We treasure our children. Even more so now that we have virtually no breeding females and dragonettes are few and far between. "

"What happened?" Lily asked him.

"There was a great war between the powers of good and evil. In the course of the war, the barriers between realms thinned and our kind were scattered, not just over different realms, but even over different times. We were able to track down a few but so many, so many, we never heard from again. Even some that we did find . . . they had lost their memories of who and what they were. It was as if they had gone feral. When your mother arrived here, we were so excited. Me, especially. I had not thought to love again, ever, but here was this extraordinary and extra-beautiful dragon, I had to woo her. She was not familiar with the ways of our kind, but she was . . . receptive to my charms," Uther smiled at his daughter. She caught a hint of those charms that would have been plied on her mother.

The old king signed. "When she disappeared, I tore this world apart and searched in many other realms for her but. . . obviously I never found her. When you appeared, well, Lilith, as a dragon, you are the very image of your mother. I knew who you were instantly. You are welcome to stay here. I hope you will stay here."

"I might, at least for a while. I've never been welcomed anywhere before, so this is a nice change."

"You are more than welcomed, my dear. There are at least ten young males who are exceedingly happy to meet you – or haven't you noticed?"

"I noticed," Lily told him with a smile of her own. "I might need some fatherly advice as how best to handle this situation."

"Well, I'm quite prejudiced, but I would have to say my grandson is the best of the lot. He's rather glum and serious and really needs a female's touch to lighten him up."

"Wait a minute," Lily cautioned, doing the math. "I'm your daughter and you want to match me up with your grandson? Isn't that a bit . . . consanguineous?"

He waved her off. "Dragon relationships tend to be a bit convoluted but . . . ahem. . . reproduction between related dragons tends to produce strong dragons – the best of the blood line always comes out. I don't know how well you can understand the complex interrelationships."

"Hey, I've been living in Storybrooke for the past couple of weeks, so complex interrelationships are pretty easy for me. Now, which one is your grandson?"

 **Same Morning – Just a Bit Later**

Emma had gotten up, wishing there was some way to get a shower. After Mordred's confession she had tried to talk with him, but he had cut her off. She had wanted to find out more about him and his history and his relationship with Arthur and . . . everything he could tell her but he had left her cold and alone in the hallway outside of her room. She had rinsed off as she could in a basin, re-dressed and made her way through the maze of hallways to find the kitchen.

It was a grey stone room with a large center hearth. There was a large long wooden table with benches on two sides along one wall. The stove appeared to be a cast-iron oven heated with wood. There was one large pot on top of the stove. Emma looked inside.

"Hmm, oatmeal, yum," she served herself from the cauldron and sat down on the bench, enjoying the filling breakfast.

Gold soon joined her, limping badly. He looked into the cauldron. "So it's gruel," he turned up his nose but served himself nonetheless. He sat down next to Emma. "Sleep well?"

"Not really. Late last night, I met a character from the Days of Yore that was totally different from the character I had been taught. I always thought that Mordred was King Arthur's illegitimate son from an incestuous relationship with his half-sister and he wanted the throne for himself."

"Partly right," Gold told her. "Although brother-sister liaisons between humans were frowned upon in this realm, it's a common enough occurrence among those with dragon blood. It doesn't seem to have any ill effects."

"Eeuu. Be that as it may, I had always thought of him as a villain. That he wanted Arthur's throne and conspired to have the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere revealed and tore the country apart in civil war."

"That part's not right," Gold told her layering a prodigious amount of honey into his oatmeal.

"I think I may have figured that out. I gather Mordred was one of the Knights of the Round Table, picked because he was stalwart and true."

"Mordred wasn't part of the Round Table. And there was no affair between Lancelot and Guinevere – they were friends, all were faithful and devoted to Arthur, although Arthur didn't believe it. It was through Arthur's most famous sword, Excalibur, that men were selected for the Round Table. It was able to assess the heart of a man and only those who were pure and brave were admitted to the Round Table. Mordred wasn't interested in his father's throne nor in being part of the Round Table, although he probably would have passed if he'd ever been put to the sword test. He did work with Lancelot and the others to hold the kingdom together after Arthur began to spiral down. Mordred was a true dragon although the transforming talent had apparently skipped his father.

"All right. My head hurts now." Emma took a couple of bites of oatmeal. "I'm still trying to get that my oldest friend is really Princess Lily?" she asked.

"She is," Gold confirmed.

"Cool. And you knew all along?"

"Of course. Babies have long been my stock in trade Miss Swan. You should be well aware of that by now."

"Yeah, I should," she glared at him. "So what happened with Arthur? You said he began to spiral down. It was because of the Dagger, right?"

Gold looked at her. "Of course. For many, many years the Darkness had gone about freely, corrupting, instigating trouble, being an all-around pain in the arse. Merlin harnessed it and put it into the dagger." he paused. "Then Merlin looked long and hard for a human who was pure enough, strong enough, brave enough to withstand the lure of the dark powers. He had . . . encouraged some matches and urged some selected . . . couplings trying to breed this exemplary human."

Emma sucked her teeth. "Sounds a bit like someone else I know."

Gold sighed, "In the end, there was Arthur. He was bright, handsome, caring, very moral, the bravest, the strongest, the truest, the best person ever. And Arthur voluntarily took on the Dagger and the dark forces."

"Let me guess. It went really well in the beginning but then . . ."

"The Dark One began to exert itself, whispering things into Arthur's ear. His wife was cheating on him with his best friend. His child wanted him to die so that he could ascend the throne. Even his great wizard friend was more interested in spending time with his fae wife than in spending time with him. None of his friends liked him anymore – they all thought he was slipping. It went on and on."

"It had begun to take over him," Emma could see.

"It fed on his soul. And ultimately the most pure, most incorruptible human . . . was corrupted."

"So then what happened?" Emma asked him. "I mean, obviously at some point, someone stabbed Arthur with the dagger and took on the curse themselves, right?"

Gold gazed out in front of himself. "It took me a while to find this out. Most of my predecessors had no interest in the history of the dagger or what had happened to previous Dark Ones. They had no interest in anything except securing their own power and because they did not take time to understand the past they were doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past."

Emma looked at him and smiled, "But you were different."

He nodded in agreement, "I was different. I traced the history back. There was a book at the Dark Castle – I don't know if it came through with the curse or not – it was a book that I had written even before I moved into the Dark Castle. In it is the lineage, the entire history of the dagger with only a few small gaps, everything I was able to find out, with little footnotes and asides. Who had the dagger, who controlled the possessors of the dagger, who killed whom to possess the dagger. It's a history of blood-letting, back-stabbing, vengeance and every vice known to mankind – the Dark Ones have practiced it all."

"So who took it from Arthur?"

"Ah. None of them wanted it. They were good and pure men, understand. All the knights of the Round Table took a chance and they drew straws. The first few chosen, Percival, Galahad, Gawaine, they failed. They were not able to go through with the task and kill Arthur. It finally fell to a young knight, Sir Belvedere."

"If I'm remembering my King Arthur stories he was the one that Arthur selected to throw Excalibur back into the lake," Emma said.

"I'm impressed, Miss Swan."

"What, that I know the Arthurian story or that I can read," she retorted.

"Either one," he said with a slight smile. "Well, the others helped Belvedere secure the dagger, distracted Arthur and guarded the doorways while he did the deed. He became the next Dark One."

"So then what happened?" Emma was intrigued. Gold was rarely this forthcoming and this history was unlike anything else she had heard.

"Belvedere, while good and pure, was not quite cut from the same caliber cloth that Arthur had been and very soon succumbed to the dark side of the dagger. The kingdom began to fall apart. Many of the knights returned to their own homes. Some decided to go to Merlin with the intention of asking him to undo the dagger curse but they didn't make it to Merlin. Dark One Belvedere confronted them and, of course, they were no match for the Dark One. And there began a great battle, not just with iron weapons but magical ones. Merlin, to protect his wife and his fae children, opened a portal and sent them through to the Enchanted Forest. I don't know exactly what happened, but I know his wife didn't make it, but most of the children did, along with Guinevere. Those fae children swore eternal vigilance and eternal vengeance against the Dark One. You know them as . . ."

"The fairies! The fairies are Merlin's children?" Emma guessed.

"Merlin had lived a very long time and had several wives over the course of his life. His last one, Nimue, was his favorite and his most powerful children were born to her," Gold nodded.

"So the animosity between you, well the Dark One, and the fairies . . ."

"Is very long standing," Gold admitted.

"So how did the Dark One get to the Enchanted Forest?"

"He went through the same portal as the fairies, killing Nimue on the way through. I would guess that she remained alive just long enough to close the portal, probably in the hope of trapping the Dark One in some smaller realm."

"Wow," Emma said. "You figured all this out?"

"From my perspective as the Dark One, yeah, so I'm not exactly sure how accurate it is," Gold told her. "Uhhhh, Miss Swan," he began hesitantly.

She looked at him expectantly.

"I tried to conjure one of those pills you gave me yesterday but . . . I didn't exactly know what I was trying to do. I think I got a tic-tac. I have minty-fresh breath, but my knee is still hurting. Your pill did seem to help . . ." he looked at her and she could tell this was costing him in pride.

"Here," she handed him another high-powered pain killer.

He popped it with a wan smile. "I will owe you a favor, my dear, for these."

"We've been through all that before. We're family now. We do things for each other," she told him warmly.

Regina came in, yawning and rubbing her backside. Her clothes were wrinkled and her hair was just a bit frizzy. "Next time let's go to a place with at least a half star rating on Trip Advisor. My room was cold until I heated it up, the covers were threadbare, the pillow flat, the mattress lumpy. I had to wash in a bowl with a rough bar of soap. There wasn't a mirror. I've got to look a fright." She sat down at the table. "Please, dear god, let there at least be some coffee."

Gold glanced over at Emma and they shared a moment of bonding. Regina had never roughed anything in her life and to be bereft of luxuries was a struggle for her. Gold and Emma both had known real hardship at different points in their lives and they valued simple necessities.

"It's not exactly coffee," Gold explained. "It's brewed from the chicory root and sweetened with honey."

"It'll have to do," Regina complained and took the cup that Emma poured for her. She sipped some, pulled a face, shrugged and sipped some more.

"When do we need to leave out?" Emma asked

Gold closed his eyes. "There's a protection spell around this place that's difficult to see through. My best guess is that Belle made it to the castle where we spent last night. She'll be up early and will likely be scrying for where Merlin is. So, I guess, we need to be up and out of here as soon as we can."

"Are we walking or is there a chance we can fly?" Regina asked, rubbing one of her feet.

"I suspect Lily is going to want to stay here, at least for a while and learn about her father's people," Emma said. The other two looked at her and she explained, "She came into my room late last night and told me this."

Gold nodded. "Well, if you two ladies don't mind, I think I feel strong enough to change over and transport you two."

The two women looked at each other and both of them bit their tongues. They were in agreement with riding _better than walking for sure_ but the prospect of 'riding Gold' was something they would never speak of again to each other or to anyone else.

Later that morning with their meager possessions gathered and standing on the topmost landing area of the Dragon's Lair they were joined by Lily and Uther. Gold closed his eyes and focused, changing into his rather magnificent green-gold dragon.

"You really make an excellent dragon, Rumplestiltskin," Uther complimented him. Gold blinked his large golden eyes with the cat-eye slits. He stretched out his golden wings and bowed his head so that Regina and Emma could climb on.

"Good luck," Lily called to them. Regina and Emma weren't able to wave; they were holding on tightly to Gold as he flew directly up and then out over the island. Emma noted again that his movements were smooth and she didn't feel nearly as nauseated as she had been riding Lily. He labored less, taking advantage of wind currents and she realized that this was a combination of size, experience and strength.

They were covering ground very quickly.

 **Storybrooke – That Same Afternoon**

"Hi, Robin," it was bubbly Astrid . . . or Nova, the pleasant but ditsy nun who had caught the eye of Grumpy Leroy. She was sitting at the front desk of the main building in the convent. "Hello Sister," Robin greeted her.

"Wow, that is one handsome frog," she said immediately noticing the animal. She had come over to Robin and was leaning over, talking to the frog, "Hello there, how are you Mr. Froggy."

"Is the Mother Superior in?" Robin asked.

"Yes. Do you want to see her?" Astrid had straightened up.

"That would be good," he told her.

Astrid was gone a moment and Ruel Ghorm came out to the entry hall to see him. "What can I do for you, Mr. Locksley?"

"I have a bit of a situation. Since Regina, Gold and Emma are all gone, I thought you might be able to help."

"Follow me," she directed him. They went through the quiet, subdued hallways of the convent. It was a peaceful place dedicated to work and contemplation. Ruel led him back to her office. "What's the problem?"

"This frog . . ." he began.

She looked at the frog, "Mr. Jones, I see. He had an altercation with Belle, I take it."

"Yes. I wanted to keep him safe until we can change him back and I think I need some help."

"What kind of help?" Ruel was obviously on her guard.

"Two things. Does Jones . . . does he know he's Jones?" he asked the old fairy.

She reached in and picked up the frog. She looked into its eyes. "I don't think so. Most people under this type of spell have no idea who they are. It's only a particularly involved and sophisticated spell in which the person retains their identity while under the spell. Mr. Dove who works for Mr. Gold is an example of someone who has retained his memories of before."

"Mr. Dove was . . . I don't understand," began Robin.

"He was a bird, before. He swore eternal allegiance to Rumplestiltskin after the Dark One saved all of Mr. Dove's children from a fox. His wife had already been killed defending the nest. Rumplestiltskin saved the children and changed Dove's form."

"Didn't know that," Robin said.

The frog croaked while she talked and she put him back in the aquarium. "It worked out well for both, I guess. Now some of these changelings will have reactions to certain settings as if memories are triggered, but they don't go seeking out people or places, not usually. I think it's safe to say that you just have a big frog here that at some point in time, may become Mr. Jones again."

"You wouldn't consider keeping him here . . . at the convent . . . where he'd be safe?" Robin asked.

Ruel considered but shook her head. "It is a thing of such dark magic, Mr. Locksley. I don't think I would be comfortable having it . . . him here. I'm sorry."

"Yes ma'am," Robin nodded. And he picked up the aquarium. He was running out of places.

 **In Another Part of Camelot**

Belle had stood outside of the castle ruins trying to decide which way to go. She hadn't brought any more of the locator potion and she certainly didn't know how to brew more. There was still that flavor of pain that allowed her to know in what direction Rumple was.

Henry had come up beside her and was also surveying the area.

"Where do we go from here, Miss Belle?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said honestly.

"Are we looking for Merlin or are we looking for my moms and Grandpa?" he asked.

"Good question." Belle considered. She wanted to catch up to Rumple and . . . and . . . what? Slap him around? Throw him down and have her way with him? Skin him alive? But . . the focus of the mission, the primary purpose _the Dark One whispered to her_ the real reason for this trip was to find Merlin and destroy him, destroy the one, true enemy of the Dark One, destroy the one who could destroy the Dark One, destroy, destroy, destroy him.

"We are looking for Merlin," Belle finally responded. She consulted with the Dark One again. "Where is he? How do I find him?" She closed her eyes and listened.

 _Good girl, smart girl, clever girl. Listen to the Dark One. Yes, listen to the Dark One. Merlin is cloaked, in hiding. There will be a fog around him. He had retreated to a far island to the West. Go West to the ocean._

"We go west," Belle decided. "We go away from the rising sun." And she and Henry mounted the small all-terrain vehicle and took off.

 **Camelot - Later in the Afternoon**

Gold had taken them far, across rolling hills and deeply shadowed valleys. They could see the ruins of other castles, even small villages now and then. He seemed to be following a particular road which got wider and wider as the miles went by under them. In the distance they could see water and realized that they were getting close to the ocean. Gold began to descend and soon enough, he landed and they dismounted.

"Do we have time for lunch?" Emma asked. Uther and his people had packed them some sandwiches, a slab of meat between two chunky pieces of bread. Gold shook himself and morphed back into his usual form. He took one of the sandwiches, answering her question regarding time for lunch.

"We have to find a boat," he told them.

"We can't fly?" Regina asked.

"No, Merlin has a shield, a powerful ward around the island. It protects him from the dragons who have not always been his friends. There is only one way that I know to get to him and that is with a boat," Gold told them.

They walked to the edge of the water. They were on a wharf with several boats docked. Gold walked over to one with the name _Beauty_ inscribed on the bow.

"We're taking this one. Ladies, would you please do the honor of sinking these other boats and then come aboard. We need to be heading out as soon as possible. My intuition tells me that Belle is closing in on us."

"You still have your intuition?" Emma asked him as she fire bolted one of the boats.

"I never lost that. I just can't pull out my fire," he told her. He watched as Regina and Emma took out the remaining four boats and then jumped aboard the _Beauty._

Gold took the ship out of dock and they launched out into the ocean. As they pulled away from the dock, they spotted something moving, coming up over the hill and down to the shoreline, leaving a wall of dust behind it. It was some type of self-propelled wheeled vehicle, an extreme novelty in medieval Camelot. It slowed up and pulled up to a stop. They could make out two figures.

Gold's eyes went to Belle. He recognized her with no difficulties, her slight form draped in silks and fringe. The other . . . the other . . . it took him a moment to recognize the slender figure next to his wife.

"Crap," he heard Emma say.

"It's Henry," Regina said. "She's got Henry with her."

 **Thanks (of course) to my faithful reviewers: TheGoldenHawk, Grace5231973, deweymay, orthankg1, Erik'sTrueAngel, ladybugsmomma, MyraValhallah, and Guest(Jewel415).**

 _NEXT: More Frog antics and tales of Sailing West to Merlin's island_


	12. Seeking

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Seeking**

 **Chapter 12**

"She has Henry with her! Why does she have Henry with her?" Regina was demanding.

"This can't be good Gold," Emma had turned on him. "She's got to be planning to use Henry as a way to get through us so that she can get to Merlin."

Gold stood quietly on the helm of the boat, looking back at the shore, looking at his grandson and the love of his life – who was the current receptacle of the bane of his existence.

 _Well shit._

"You didn't foresee this, did you?" Emma pressed him.

He didn't reply - just turned away. He sat down.

"Well, what are we going to do?" Regina demanded to know.

"Keep on course," Gold replied to her tersely.

"No, we should go back and rescue Henry!" Regina insisted.

"What? Do you think that we can face down the Dark One?" Gold asked her. "Belle isn't at full power. She hasn't explored her limits and likely doesn't understand what she can and can't do, but, I can promise you, she can still wipe the floor with all of us. We don't have a chance going three-on-one against her." Then he added quietly, "And Henry could get hurt in the cross-fire."

"Well, we could just give you to her and take Henry back," Regina suggested.

Gold stiffened. "I think it best we continue with our original plan to get to Merlin and have him help us remove the Curse from Belle. Then she'll be saved and Henry will be saved and we can all go back home."

"What if Merlin's not there? Or he's not able to remove the Curse? Or he doesn't want to remove the Curse?" asked Emma.

"Then you can give me over to Belle in exchange for Henry," he said impatiently.

"Now you're talking," Regina said. "That's a deal."

The boat without guidance bobbed up and down in the water sailing further and further away from the shore.

"How . . . I mean how does the boat know where we're going?" Emma asked. "Or are we just adrift in the middle of an ocean?"

"The boat knows our intent," explained Gold. "It will take us to Merlin's island and, assuming he's willing to see us, we'll land and go and talk with him."

"You mean, we've come all this way, and Merlin may not be interested in seeing us?" Emma asked.

"He'll see us," Gold insisted.

They continued to sail on through the morning.

 **Camelot- Later that Morning**

"You're going back out on patrol?" Lily was asking the dour young man who had been the leader of the group that had brought them in.

Mordred, for it was none other than he, was brushing his boots and adjusting his body armor. "Yes. I still have men out in the field who may encounter the Dark One."

"You better hope they don't," Lily told him. "Just cause she's a female doesn't make her any less powerful."

Mordred shook his head, "I confess I'm having difficulties with the entire concept of a female Dark One. For a woman to have taken on that burden . . ." He paused and Lily was about to share a comment regarding his misogynistic attitude. "I would think that she is likely more powerful than many of the male Dark Ones. Women have such inner strength, focus of purpose. And they're certainly more inventive than men when it comes to . . . many things. I imagine this female Dark One is quite fearsome."

"She tore up the town we're from – an earthquake, a hailstorm, toppling buildings."

"Your Mr. Gold . . .? He is her lover?" he asked.

"Husband," Lily told him. "And a former Dark One himself."

Mordred was puzzled. "But how? The old Dark One dies when the new one is born."

"As I understand, Merlin's Apprentice removed the Darkness from Gold and cleansed his heart," Lily tried to explain.

Mordred stopped brushing his boot. "The Apprentice cleansed his heart? Then that means . . . "

"What?"

He sat still a moment, "It's part of the prophecy about the Savior. It's something like _he whose heart had been put through the fire and cleansed will rise and claim his due putting an ancient enmity to rest."_

"Well, it might not have anything to do with Gold," Lily said, unsure of herself.

Mordred stood up. "Want to go flying?" he asked abruptly.

"Would I? Would I!" she jumped up, then stopped herself to confess, "I'm not very good."

Mordred gave her a hint of a smile, "You will be."

 **Storybrooke – Late Afternoon**

Robin had fetched little Roland from the preschool. He'd fixed the child a snack and left him at the kitchen table while he gathered up some laundry. When he returned to the kitchen he saw that a chair had been pulled up to the aquarium and both Roland and the frog were gone.

Robin panicked. "Roland?" he called. "Roland!"

"Yes, daddy," he heard the child call back to him. He was outside.

Robin ran to the door and down the steps. Roland was in the frontyard.

"I'm playing with the frog, daddy," Roland informed him. "What's his name?"

"Uh. . . he doesn't have a name." Robin was torn. He didn't want to be angry with his son for being a boy but he also wanted to protect Frog Jones. "Roland, dear, we need to take the frog back inside. He's a rather special frog and I don't want him to get hurt outside."

"But don't froggies live outside?" Roland asked him.

"Most do, but as I said, this froggie is special. Can you pick him up and carry him back in?"

Roland nodded and turned. "Daddy, froggie's gone."

"Oh shhh. . . oh dear," Robin said. "Let's look for him."

"If he had a name, we could call it and he'd come," Roland patiently explained to his father one of the reasons for having a name.

"Yeah, we'll have to get around to naming him but we have to find him first."

Robin began scanning the lawn and checking under the bushes.

"What are you up to?" It was Archie, walking Pongo along the sidewalk in front of the house.

"Looking for a frog," Robin told him. He lowered his voice, "It's actually Killian Jones."

"What?!" Archie took a moment to absorb the information. "Here, I'll help look."

The two men began a systematic search of the yard, the gardens that graced the perimeter of the yard and the surrounding sidewalks. Roland had abandoned the search and was now playing with Pongo, throwing a stick for the dog to fetch.

It was more than fifteen minutes and Robin was beginning to panic. He'd lost Killian. Emma Swan was likely to kill him when she returned. Maybe he could appeal to Gold for protection. The two men heard Pongo barking.

"Pongo found him," they heard Roland call.

Robin and Archie rushed over to the barking dog.

"Whacha found?" Archie asked the dog.

Pongo dipped his head and barked again and, in an instance, took off down the sidewalk. Robin could just make out that there was a large frog bounding down the street in front of the dog.

Archie and Robin with Roland in tow, took off chasing after the dog. Robin was holding his breath that the frog wouldn't venture out into the street.

"He's headed for the park," Archie shouted back.

"Oh good grief. If he gets to the pond, we might not ever get him back," said Robin.

Fortunately for Robin, the frog headed toward the diner rather than the park.

Archie spied Ruby walking along the sidewalk, coming towards them.

"Get the frog!" he shouted at her. "Get the frog!"

Ruby heard him and spotted the frog coming towards her. With lupine grace she lunged towards the frog and caught him in mid-leap. Pongo reached her first, barking at the frog, followed closely by breathless Archie and Robin.

"Thanks so much," Robin reached for the frog.

"Pet frog?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Well, there's more to it," Robin hedged.

"What? Don't tell me – Belle turned Jones into a frog?!" Ruby guessed.

Robin hung his head, "Right."

"Shouldn't you be keeping him in an aquarium or something?" she asked him.

"I was, but . . . "Robin glanced at his son, "Roland took him out to play with him."

Ruby understood. "Ooooh, of course. Well, I'd offer to keep him but the idea of having Jones in my bedroom is tooooo creepy for words."

"The Blue Fairy assured me that he doesn't have his human memories. He doesn't know who he is."

Ruby shook her head, "Not a chance, Robin. Why not keep him in Gold's shop? No one's in there. You can drop by and feed him every day."

"That's an idea," Robin told her. "I'll see if I can't get in touch with Mr. Dove."

 **Meanwhile Back on the Shore**

Belle was pacing. She was livid and as she walked back and forth there were tiny explosions when little shells and grains of sand would ignite. Henry stayed back at a respectful distance. He was surveying the dock area.

"It looks like Grandpa had all the other boats damaged so we couldn't sail over after them."

Belle glared at him.

"Do you know another way we can follow them?" he asked.

Belle shook her head.

"Miss Belle?" Henry began. "You're having trouble managing this Dark One thing aren't you?"

Belle just looked at him.

"I know Grandpa. He was able to just wave his hand and things would happen. But you don't seem to be able to do that. Does it take practice to use your powers?"

Belle sighed. "When the transfer happened, the way it happened, I didn't get _all_ the knowledge that Rumple had in his head. I have the power but I don't always know how to make it work. It's hard to control and can come out too much or . . . not enough."

"What do you think Grandpa would have done in this situation?" Henry asked her.

"He might conjure a new boat . . . or raise one of the old boats and fix it . . . or turn our all-terrain vehicle into a jet ski. . . "

"That would be cool!" Henry told her.

"What? Which one?" Belle asked.

"The jet ski! Why don't I drive this into the surf and you concentrate on making the change." Henry had already leapt back on the all-terrain vehicle they had rode in on and was motoring it slowly into the water.

"Henry, wait," Belle told him. The boy turned. Belle looked at him a long time. "You aren't afraid of me?"

Henry didn't answer right away.

"You aren't afraid I'll hurt you, even kill you to stop them from taking the Dark Curse out of me?" she pursued.

"A little. You are . . . you can be pretty scary. I mean when you were sitting on top of the clock tower and had trashed the town and there was hail, and lightning and an earthquake. Wow, you were pretty awesome . . . and scary." Henry stopped talking a moment. He got off the vehicle and approached Belle. "But I think even if you are the Dark One, you're still Belle. You're still the nice lady who sacrificed herself to save her people, the nice lady who fell in love with my grandfather when he was a . . . a . . . ."

"A beast," Belle supplied.

"Yeah, a beast. And you're still the nice lady who loves my grandfather and you're the one who would stop him from killing people and being mean to people and that part of you is still there." Henry abruptly leaned in and gave her a quick hug.

Belle separated awkwardly. "But the Dark One is very powerful. Do you know your grandfather was a meek spinner, the village coward when he became the Dark One and, once he got the power, he began to kill."

"He also stopped the Ogre Wars and rescued a whole lot of children. My dad told me that."

"A few good deeds amid a vast ocean of misdeeds. The Dark One almost consumed his soul."

"But he fought against it for three hundred years. I figure you can fight against it for a few hours."

Belle didn't reply. She watched Henry as he re-mounted the vehicle now sitting within the edge of the water.

"Do you need to go ahead and get on?" he asked her.

"I guess," and she lifted her skirts to wade through the water to the vehicle. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She waved her hand and the vehicle shimmered and changed. Henry pressed the pedal and the vehicle lurched forward, throwing both Belle and Henry back.

"Sorry, Miss Belle, I'm not used to the controls." He slowly pressed the pedal again and the little jet ski began to pick up speed and plow through the surf.

 **Merlin's Island**

The fog had become thicker and the water calmer. The boat was floating slowly on a mirrored surface without any real sense of direction. They seemed to have been floating for hours.

"Are we getting near this island or what?" Regina asked.

"Hopefully that's what's happening," Gold told her.

"Well how will we know? If I walk to the other end of this boat, I wouldn't be able to see you."

"We'll know," Gold told her.

"Is this some kind of test?" Emma asked him.

"Maybe. I only met Merlin once and it was a long time ago and I was the Dark One at the time."

"What was he like?" Emma asked.

"A tall man, slender, dark-skinned, otherwise ordinary looking. He usually wore a simple robe, like a religious cleric. When he looked at me, he just seemed . . . sad."

"Is he the greatest sorcerer that ever lived?" Emma asked.

"I didn't challenge him. Even in my arrogance, I think I was worried that he could take me. After we met, I began researching him to find out everything I could. I already had the knowledge of the sorcerer's hat and I knew he'd had at least one apprentice."

"There were others?"

"Oh yes. It was odd to me, even at the time, that Merlin took on only male apprentices whereas I took on only females." He shrugged. "My research confirmed what I had suspected, that Merlin was very old, older than myself, older than the Dark One. He had always lived in Camelot. He'd had a series of paramours, elemental creatures, and a lot of daughters, only daughters, by these entities. The last one, Nimue, was by all accounts, his favorite."

"You said he had created the Dagger Curse," Emma prompted.

Gold gazed off into the fog. "I don't know if he created it, discovered it, developed it or what. But it definitely originated with him, here in Camelot. He tied the darkness to the dagger and, in turn, the dagger to a human soul. He thought, he believed, a noble human would be a match for the darkness. He didn't understand the power of his curse nor the fallibilities of the human soul." Gold sighed. "He thought if he selected someone who was brave and pure, they would be able to manage the curse. He spent years searching, even taking an active hand in the creation of the right person."

"It was young Arthur," Regina said.

Gold nodded. "Then Belvedere, who was also good and pure, but who didn't last anytime, before he succumbed to Darkness. He was the first to try to kill Merlin, recognizing that if he were dead, then there would be no one who could ever unravel the curse. Mordred led the forces protecting Merlin's daughters from the Dark One. But Belvedere destroyed most of them and was able to follow them into the Enchanted Forest. It was probably Nimue that closed the portal to protect Camelot."

"But screwed over the Enchanted Forest," observed Regina.

"Did you come back here with Malificent to try to kill Merlin?" Emma asked.

Gold sat absolutely still for a long moment and then gave a barely perceptible nod. "I saw that I wasn't . . . his power was too much, even for me. I realized I would not be the Dark One that would be able to do this."

"But if you, with all your accumulated knowledge, your sheer deviousness, if you knew you wouldn't be able to do this, why would Belle think she can? As I understand things, she has the powers but not the knowledge that you accrued," Emma asked.

"Which is why she thinks she can do this. She has the power, but not the knowledge," he responded wryly.

"Perhaps she means to enlist our aid by holding Henry hostage," Regina suggested.

Gold closed his eyes. "Perhaps. I would hope that Belle would not allow the Dark One to do such a thing, but. . . the Dark One can be very persuasive."

Emma was perceptive, "There's something else you're not telling us."

"There was a prophecy that a boy would lead me to my son and this boy would be my undoing."

"And Henry did lead you to Neal but he hasn't proven to be your undoing, has he?" she asked.

"I thought that sacrificing myself when I . . . when I killed my father, was my undoing. But now I wonder. . . "

"What?"

"Was the seer talking to Rumplestiltskin or was she talking to the Dark One?" Gold asked.

The three sat quietly. Regina stood suddenly. "I think I see something," and she pointed out towards the side of the ship. They all peered in the direction she was pointing and slowly a dark, black shoreline came into view. The boat slowly made its way in and then bobbed and floated into a dock. Gold tied the boat off and the three disembarked. There was a white stone path leading away from the shore and they all began to walk up it. It rolled up and down several times but on one turn, as they looked through the trees they could spot a gray tower.

They stopped a moment and looked up at the structure.

They then looked at each other and kept walking. The path led directly to the tower. When they got there, they saw the plain grey stone tower stretching up to the sky with an occasional window. They walked around the building.

"Where's the frickin' door?" asked Emma.

"It's a puzzle. Some of these old time sorcerers liked to present seekers with these dumbass puzzles that they had to solve before the sorcerer would give them the time of day," Regina said with no little disgust.

The two women looked at Gold who again sighed (he felt like he was doing a lot of sighing). "All right," he said and approached the tower. He didn't raise his voice or do anything obviously magical.

"Merlin, it's a bit urgent. We need to see you."

Nothing happened.

"Merlin, Merlin, Merlin," Gold tried calling the name three times.

Nothing happened.

"You know who I am. Who I've been. What I've been. I need to see you," he made one last effort. "Please."

Nothing happened.

"The Dark One is coming here with the Boy Who Will Be the Undoing," he added.

"What?!" Emma and Regina both spoke.

"Is that what you think is going to happen?" Emma asked.

Nothing happened.

"Well, that was a bit of a letdown," Gold said and he went and sat down on one of the stones that littered the grounds around the tower.

"What are we going to do?" Regina asked. "Belle will be here in a matter of . . . moments."

"I thought the plan was to turn me over to her for her predations while you two absconded with your son," Gold reminded her caustically.

"That was a joke, but it's sounding better and better," Regina replied.

"Maybe Merlin's not here anymore," Emma suggested. "I mean you said he was really, really old. Maybe. . . he's dead."

"He's not dead," Gold replied.

"How do you know?" Emma asked.

"I know," he responded shortly.

" _How_ do you know?" Emma pressed.

"I just know," he told her sourly.

"He's not going to give it up, Emma," Regina said. "I've seen him like this before. It's the Dark Sorcerer Thing he has to keep going."

"Well then," Emma said angrily. "What should we do? Just sit here and wait for Belle to come and incinerate us?"

Gold got up and walked back and forth for a bit. "I know he's in there or," he stopped pacing and looked around at the trees that surrounded the tower, "hanging around out here somewhere." He turned and addressed the tower. "What are you wanting from us? Our deaths? You know if the Dark One gets here without you as backup we don't stand a chance." He stopped and began to talk softly as if he didn't want Emma and Regina to hear him. "I'm ready to die, you know this. I'm prepared to sacrifice myself for everyone else, for Regina, Emma, and especially for Henry and absolutely for Belle. Is that what is needed? A sacrifice."

"All magic has a price."

It was a strange voice, a new voice that spoke and the trio turned to see a man of indeterminate age sitting on one of the rocks behind them. He fit Gold's description of a slender man with dark skin. He had kind eyes that reflected his concern. He was dressed in a plain woven robe. He was handling what appeared to be a child's toy.

"Merlin?" Regina asked.

"Yes Regina, I'm Merlin," he answered her distractedly. He set the toy on the rock next to him. It appeared to be an old-fashioned balancing scale.

"You know who I am?" Regina asked and took a half step backwards.

He smiled kindly. "I have followed your difficult journey a long time, my dear. You are so strong and have fought so valiantly."

Emma hung back but his eyes went to her next. "And Emma Swan. The Savior. Pure of heart and spirit. I'm surprised the Curse did not seek you out."

He then turned his attention back to Gold. "Rumplestiltskin. Mr. Gold. The most remarkable of all the Dark Ones. You held out against the Darkness longer than anyone by far. What an extraordinary man you are."

"Not hardly," Gold told him. "If you know me, you know I've been a coward, a murderer, a violent beast. I've let my desire for power override every shred of goodness that ever came into my life. And I've lost everything for that desire, time and again."

Merlin looked kindly on Gold causing the shorter man to flinch. "But you never wanted the power for power's sake and that is what made you different from all the others." He put a weight on the scale and it tipped the lever down. "You wanted it to get back your son, to keep your family safe, to keep the woman you loved safe." He added a small weight to the other side and the lever arm shifted slightly. "Even now you are prepared to give up your life to protect the people you love." He added another small weight to the same side and the lever balanced. " _That_ was what I was missing when went looking for a human strong enough to manage the Curse. That love for others is such a stumbling block for the Dark One."

"You had no right," Gold told him. "You had no right to do this to any of us. Not just to the human who was cursed with the dagger but to all of their victims."

Merlin pulled back. "I had no choice."

"There's always a choice!" Gold yelled at him.

Emma stepped up to Gold and put a hand on his arm, "Listen, should you be pissing him off when we need him to help with Belle?"

"He's right, Miss Swan. I made choices that were selfish, that benefited me, choices I thought were best," Merlin told her. He cleared off the scale and started again, this time using weights that were black on one side and white on the other. "Dark and Light," he said to himself, putting down first a black weight and then balancing the scale with a white weight.

"What are you going to do about it?" Gold asked him. "In a few moments, Belle, the Dark One, will come over that hill and she has in tow, my grandson, the son of these two women. She will use him as a shield against us."

Merlin took a deep breath, examining the balancing scale. "I will do nothing. Rumplestiltskin," Merlin told him, looking at him. "You know, you know what to do. You will do it."

Emma and Regina looked at Gold. "Do you know what he's talking about?" Emma asked Gold.

Gold locked eyes with Merlin.

 **Down on the Shore Line**

Henry drove the jet ski up to the shore at which point Belle changed it back to a wheeled vehicle. Henry managed to drive it up off the beach and then stopped.

"Where to now, Miss Belle?" he asked.

"I would suggest we get off and walk along the path. It feels the right direction. I can smell the power ahead of us," she told him.

The two of them walked along the same winding path that Gold, Regina and Emma had gone up earlier. Soon enough the tower loomed.

Belle smiled. "Come along Henry, we're almost there."

And the two came out into the clearing in front of the tower. Gold stood alone waiting for them.

"My dearest Belle. At last you've made it here."

 **Thanks to all those who reviewed the last chapter (your kind words really do help keep me focused): TheGoldenHawk, Wolf Within, Robin4, orthankg1, Erik'sTrueAngel, deweymay, ladybugsmomma, Grace5231973, and MyraValhallah**.

 _NEXT: The Showdown_


	13. Moments

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 13**

 **Moments**

 **Storybrooke – Late Afternoon**

"Well, let's see if we can't keep you stay safe here," Robin was carrying Frog-Jones in his aquarium over to Gold's Pawn Shop. Ruby had called ahead and Mr. Dove was waiting by the front door with the keys. Robin glanced up at the tall, taciturn man who turned to unlock the door as he approached. Mr. Dove held the door open for Robin.

"Thank you," Robin told him. He stepped inside the dark, dusty shop and looked around. It was the first time he had come into the shop. He was astonished at the array of items, from cheap sentimental items to genuinely valuable merchandise that was on display in the shop.

 _Where to put the frog? Where to put the frog?_ It didn't appear to Robin that anyone had been in the shop since . . . since the night that the Apprentice had pulled the Darkness out of Mr. Gold.

Dove, quite familiar with the interior of the shop, determinedly walked over to a shelf next to a window. He cleared the shelf of bric-a-brac and stood aside.

"Thanks . . . again," Robin said. He set the aquarium on the shelf. It would get some sunlight but was protected from cold and other elements. Robin turned to Dove. "The Blue Fairy . . ." he immediately noted that Dove pulled a face when he mentioned the fairy's name, but he continued, "The Blue Fairy said that you were once a bird and Rumplestiltskin saved your children."

Dove nodded slowly.

"She said it's unusual and takes a very powerful spell for someone who's had their form changed to remember," Robin continued.

"I asked that I be able to remember," Dove told him in a steady monotone. He then went to the door. The clearly unstated message was that it was time for Robin to leave. "I will feed the frog," Dove told him.

"Thank you," Robin answered. "I felt like I was in over my head." He might have said more, but Dove clearly wasn't a man given to idle chatter and was ready to move on to his other duties and responsibilities _– whatever they were - keeping the bodies buried, collecting protection money – Robin had heard that Gold had been into some shady operations_. Robin just nodded and smiled at the reticent man and took leave. He did realize that Gold's shop was probably the last place Killian Jones would have preferred to have been stashed given the lengthy history of unpleasantries that had been exchanged between the two principles, but he felt he was out of options.

He picked up Roland from the diner where Granny and Ruby had been watching him. They had given the child a hot chocolate and a cinnamon bun. Robin looked at his child who was engaged in an animated conversation with Granny. Ruby smiled when she saw him and came over to him.

"He's a great kid," she told him.

Robin nodded. _He could hardly argue with that._

"Regina will be home soon," Ruby told him. "I'm sure of it. Between them, Regina, Emma and Gold . . . they'll take care of each other, Belle and Henry too."

"Yeah," Robin answered.

 **Merlin's Island – Moments Before**

Gold was waiting to greet Belle as she came up the hill to the tower.

But there had been moments before.

There had been those moments directly after Belle, the Dark One, had landed on Merlin's Island. She had begun her walk up the path to Merlin's Tower, followed by her step-grandson, Henry.

There had been those moments on the hill in front of the tower when Regina, Emma and Gold had confronted Merlin.

"You've got to help us," Regina had turned on the wizard as he sat quietly on the rocks. "The new Dark One is about to land on this island and she's prepared to fry every one of us. She plans to try to kill you."

The man had nodded. "She's actually already here and on her way to the tower."

Gold, Emma and Regina had looked at each other in near panic.

"Can you take the Darkness out of Belle?" Emma had asked him. "And find some other place for it to go?"

Merlin had sat back. He didn't immediately respond.

"I'll take it back," Gold had told him. "I managed it longer than any other human host. I would be willing to take it again."

"I'll take it," Emma had told him. "I had all darkness taken from me before birth. I'm willing to take on the burden."

"I'll take it," Regina had told him. "I've lived with darkness and learned to manage it. I'm willing."

Merlin didn't say anything for a moment. He had stood. "Interesting. Three willing potential hosts – each believing that they know the possible costs of taking on the Darkness. Each willing to sacrifice themselves."

"Well, is it possible, is it possible to take it out of Belle?" Emma had asked him again.

"The Darkness is where it belongs . . . for now," Merlin had told them.

"No!" Gold had nearly shouted. "I know . . . I know what a burden it is, what a corrupting . . . influence it is! Belle doesn't deserve it! She's good and pure and innocent and . . . ." he hadn't been able to finish.

"Belle took on the Darkness solely because of her love for you. She was the first to take it on without wanting the power, without wanting any power. She just stepped in to save you, sacrificing herself. Not the first time she'd sacrificed herself to save others. She is truly remarkable," Merlin had told him, his face reflecting his concern.

"But she doesn't deserve the Darkness, what it will do to her . . . You've got to help her," Gold had been nearly frantic.

Merlin had slowly nodded. "No, she doesn't deserve the Darkness." He had sat back down on the stones, his hood falling over his face. Very softly speaking more to himself than to them, "But the Darkness deserves Belle."

"So you will help her?" Regina had asked. "You've got three other willing hosts here."

"I do," and Merlin had waved his hand and he, Regina and Emma all disappeared, leaving Gold alone in front of the castle.

 **Merlin's Island – Moment From Just a Little Earlier**

There had been those moments before when Belle and Henry had neared Merlin's Island, when they were still struggling on the waters.

"This fog is not natural," Belle had yelled above the roar of the engine. They were still skirting across the water on the jet ski, riding, moving along in a white landscape of froth and mist.

"I have no idea where we're going," Henry had told her, shouting as loud as he was able. They were plowing through the water, aimlessly going forward but really not having any idea of what direction they were going. "We may have been going in circles," Henry had said.

"Perhaps," Belle had shouted back at him. "Cut the engines," she had told him.

Henry did and the two were left floating in the fog on the dark ocean waters. With the engines silent, they were left in an eerie setting with the only sound being the lapping of the waves. The only sight was the thick white fog that surrounded them.

"Do you think we're in trouble, Miss Belle?" Henry had asked.

"Maybe." She had closed her eyes, scanning for Rumple's pain. "No," she had answered. "We're going the right way. The waves are taking us to shore, to Merlin's Island."

Henry had leaned forward making the jet ski tilt precariously. "I think I may see something!" he had pointed excitedly.

Belle had looked where he was pointing and her demon-accentuated vision was able to pierce through some of the mist. She had been able to make out a shoreline. They were floating towards it.

"Yeah," Henry had told her. "We're being brought in."

Belle had agreed and Henry had restarted the jet ski to bring them on to the shore.

The jet ski eventually made its way up to the same dock that Gold had moored the _Beauty._

"Hey Miss Belle," Henry had called her attention to the boat. "Grandpa picked a boat named after you."

Belle had looked at the boat and shaken her head. _Rumple was such a pushover, a gushy romantic at heart. The kind of man to send roses to a woman, a man who would lend a woman his handkerchief when she was upset (and he always carried a handkerchief for just such an occasion), a man who would actually remember anniversaries . . . love the children a woman might give him._

The Dark One had squirmed. The cowardly mewling little Spinner had proven to be a tough nut to crack – it had taken nearly three times longer than any of the others to consume his heart. He had been well shielded with the love he had for his son and then the love he developed for . . . Belle.

And he was still being a pain in the arse.

The Dark One admittedly had been intrigued by Belle. And now, the demon found her capacity for love fascinating . . . and dangerous. It knew now that she had been attracted to both the Spinner and . . . to the demon. She knew the monster well and part of her. . . had loved It too. Loved It, in spite of the darkness, the pain, the ending hunger.

It was . . . unsettling.

Belle and Henry had waded ashore and Belle took a moment to dry their clothing. They had looked around. The path the others had taken was clearly apparent and Belle and Henry easily followed their footprints in the sand. They had followed the path that led through rocks and up and down hills, in through the forest. Henry had looked up as they were walking and caught a glimpse of a grey tower.

Belle had slowed up their pace as they neared the clearing.

"Henry," she had stopped and addressed him slowly. "You are to stay behind me. Do you understand?"

"Yes ma'am," Henry had replied but then he stopped his step-grandmother. "Whatever happens, I love you Miss Belle. You loved my grandfather even when, even though he wasn't very lovable. I may be the Truest Believer, but it's in people like you that I believe in," he had told her. The Dark One had turned to him. Her eyes had gone completely black, the vivid blue of her irises encompassed by the darkness. His step-grandmother had slipped into totally scary mode. She made no response to him.

As they came out into the clearing in from to the tower, Henry could see his grandfather on one side. His grandfather had stepped forward.

 **The Moment is Now**

"My dearest Belle. At last you've made it here," Gold greeted his bride.

"Damn right I made it here," Belle turned her obsidian eyes on him. She glanced once behind her, ensuring herself that Henry wasn't about to run up the hill to join in the fray. _She might need him alive to get through his mothers after she disposed of the man._ "You think you're going to stop me?" she asked him.

He smiled at her and stepped aside. "Have at it," he gestured, much as he would have when he was the Dark One, drawing Belle's attention to the tower.

"Is he in there?" she asked.

Gold considered a moment. "To be truthful, I don't know."

She nearly snorted. "Truthful?! When have _you_ ever been truthful? I can believe nothing you say."

Gold shrugged. "Then why ask me any questions, love?"

"Don't call me that!"

"You forget," Gold told her, walking softly around her, slowly getting closer to her. "I know how this works. I know how it feels to have the Dark One inside of you, pressing on yourself, murmuring, muttering, suggesting, pushing, pushing and pushing. I know, for however loud the Dark One is screaming inside of you, that Belle is still in there. And Belle hasn't given up on me. She hasn't given up on us."

"You think she hasn't? Have you ever known how she felt about anything?" Belle glared at him.

"I've not known. It's been one of my personal failings."

"Well, you've had so many," Belle spat back at him.

"I have," Gold admitted. "Belle was always the one to see something in me, her love was unflagging."

"But in the end, she betrayed you. She used the dagger against you. She exiled you, taking away your powers in the process. She betrayed you with another man," Belle taunted him.

"Nonetheless, her love remains," Gold answered somberly.

Belle faltered, just a moment, but faltered nonetheless.

Gold took advantage of the break. "It has been her love that has allowed her to know me. She has known, you know, better how I feel than I do," he dropped his eyes a moment and then looked at her again. "I didn't know I was in love with you but you knew. I didn't know how to tell you that you were more important to me than my power, but you knew." He began to walk closer and closer to her. "I didn't know that I would never find real happiness until I learned these lessons, but you knew. Belle, you've always known. You've known me better than I've known myself."

Belle pulled back. "This is another one of your tricks!" she shouted at him, frantic. "You know what I want to hear and you say it. You are the master trickster."

"Belle, I'm not the Dark One anymore."

"But you're not an ordinary man either," she told him. "I can see it. I can see it." Her eyes flicked over to the tower. "I will not allow you to distract me from what I came here to do. I didn't know before. I hadn't figured it out, but now . . . now I see. As long as Merlin lives, I will be in danger."

"You'll have to go through me Belle," Gold had gotten close to her. He hadn't looked at Henry but the boy was well within the line of his vision. _He was safe for the moment._

Belle glanced back at Gold and drew herself up straight. "With pleasure," she said solidly and she raised a hand and pushed Gold. He wavered back but held his ground.

That response surprised her. "Is Merlin protecting you?" she asked.

Gold shook his head. "No," he answered softly.

 **In Flight**

Flying alongside another dragon was the most exhilarating thing that Lily had ever done. Mordred touched her mind, gently, respectfully.

:Climb with me,: he directed her and begin beating his great wings against the winds, flying up and up, leaving behind the kingdom of Camelot. As they climbed she could see the outlines of the shore, could see the fog bank on one side of the kingdom. The air was thinner and colder and she found it somehow dangerous and exciting.

:Fall with me,: he told her next and folded his wings. The two dragons, one blue-grey and the other black, fell like stones, the wind rushing by them. It was only at the last moment that Mordred spread his wings. Lily followed suit and the two dragons nearly brushed against the ground before swooping back up into the air.

:Can you make flames?: he asked her.

:No,: she admitted. :I've tried, but nothing happens.:

:Watch me,: he told her and using her enhanced dragon vision, she watched. He inhaled a great volume of air and held it. Then slowly, a solid, focused line of fire came out of his mouth. In her dragon form, Lily found the fire beautiful, a thing of power and a force of life, not a thing of destruction and death. :Did you see what I did?: he asked.

:I think so. You held in the air and somehow heated it,: she relayed back to him.

:You heat it with the fire that is in your chest. Try it.:

Lily's first attempt resulted in a puff of black smoke. She felt embarrassed at first, but Mordred was very complimentary.

:That is excellent for a first effort,: he told her. :Now, hold it longer. Think hotter.:

The second time, Lily managed to expel a thin short-lived flame.

Mordred again complimented her. The fire-breathing lesson continued throughout the afternoon until Lily was able to breathe a variety of flames, not yet a master of flames, but an advanced student for sure.

The two landed by the Lair and morphed back into their human shapes.

"I thought you had some men to check on," Lily told him.

Mordred had the grace to look guilty. "Yeah, well, I decided you were a lot more pleasant company." Mordred hesitated. "Actually I promised my grandfather that I would spend the afternoon with you. He seems to think that we are destined for each other. I don't want to disappoint the man, he is . . . he's been more of a father to me than my own father. I respect him and I love him."

"Are we?" Lily asked. "Are we destined for each other? You people seem to have a lot of prophecies. Is there one about us?"

Mordred gave her a thin smile. It was the first smile she had seen from him. "Not that I know of. And I've studied the prophecies. Most of them make little sense or they have already come to pass. With the Savior's arrival, time has started moving again." Concern clouded his blue-grey eyes. "I think they will find Merlin and, I hope, put an end to all the Dark One/Light One mess that he got us all into so long ago."

"I take it you're not a fan of Merlin?" Lily questioned him.

"I'm not a big fan of sorcerers in general. They primarily make mischief and can't be trusted."

Lily couldn't argue with that. Magic had certainly taken a hand in messing up her life.

Mordred gave her a gentle smile. "Let me show you some more about our Lair here. It has some interesting features."

"Really?"

"I'm thinking of some hot springs in a secluded little corner," he told her and this time it was a genuine smile that she got from the man.

 **Inside Merlin's Tower**

"Can't you help him?" Regina had asked the old sorcerer **.**

Merlin shook his head. "This fight is between those two. I have nothing to do with it." He didn't seem particularly concerned.

"What is going on?" Emma asked in a whisper. She had seen Belle throw a power bolt at Gold. "Shouldn't he have fallen over?"

"He's using his light magic," explained Regina. "She threw a punch and he blocked it."

"So is he going to . . . to . . . fight her?" Emma asked. "But is he strong enough to go up against the Dark One?"

"A Wizard's Duel," Merlin explained. "It's an ancient ritual, rarely seen because the Dark One has outmatched everyone, at least in your realm. . . . well in most of the realms, for that matter."

"Gold just stood there when she . . . popped him one." Emma observed.

Merlin gave her his quiet smile. The threesome were watching the action through a window that was not visible on the outside of the tower. They could see everything, hear everything that was going on.

Belle gestured again, pushing at the air in front of her and again Gold simply wavered back as if Belle, human Belle, had pushed him with her hands. Belle's eyes narrowed. This time she reared back and her hand went rapidly in front of her as if she was throwing a ball.

Gold flinched but didn't fall. "We can do this all day, Belle. You aren't going to be able to push me over."

"I don't understand, I should be able to kill you."

Gold stood quietly. "Why can't you, Belle? Why can't you?"

For a response, Belle slowly raised her hand, conjuring a powerful wind that blew against Gold. She began to fling fireball after fireball, enveloping the man in a firestorm of blazing, intensely heated orbs of energy.

They simply went around Gold, the wind, the fireballs, eventually surrounding him, enveloping him in a haze of super-heated golden-red energy and light. He stood quietly while the Dark One threw everything it had against him.

Belle stopped a moment, panting in the effort it took to continuously propel large amounts of energy against what was proving to be a brick wall (more than a brick wall which would have melted under the onslaught). "Why aren't you falling down in pain?!" she demanded. "How can you still be standing?" she screamed at him.

Slowly Gold stepped over to Belle, closing the distance between them. He put his hands on her shoulders, gently holding her.

"Belle you know what happened when the Apprentice removed my heart?"

She nodded her head, "He cleansed you of the Dark One?"

"And then?" he questioned. _Had she noticed? Had she understood?_

"You fell into a coma until you heard Emma Swan's name," she told him, stepping back to increase the distance between herself and her (former) lover.

"Belle, he put something in me," he told her gently stepping close to her and placing his hand on her arm. "Just as there is a Dark One, there is, of course, a Light One."

Belle glanced up at the tower _she had guessed that Merlin, coward that he was, had transported himself, Regina and Emma into the little fortress_ , "Like the Savior?"

"No, like that, but something much, much more powerful. It was so different, so very different, that it has taken me a while to recognize that which is now in me. I've been struggling to access the energies, to grasp how to use them." He looked down for a moment, "Too many years of mastering the dark powers, I guess."

Belle was trying to pull back from him, but he wouldn't let her go. "So I'm Dark and you're Light. That means we can't ever be together."

"Oh Belle," one of his hands slid up to her chin. "No, my darling. If you want, it means we can be together forever," and he slowly bent his head to kiss her.

It was a deep, penetrating kiss, one shared by lovers, never meant to be seen by others.

 **Thanks to all my latest reviewers (TheGoldenHawk, TracyJean, Robin4, Grace5231973, Erik'sTrueAngel , deweymay, MyraValhallah, orthankg1, ladybugsmomma, and Wolf Within) and those who have recently began following and favoriting this story.**

 _NEXT: The Final Chapter (I hope to have this done in a timely fashion. Some of you may be aware that we have had devastating flooding in this part of the country. I am in the high country but am still dealing with some serious impact from the deluge of rain and this is impacting on my writing schedule.)_


	14. Balance

**Darkness Becomes Her**

 **Chapter 14**

 **Balance**

 **Inside Merlin's Tower**

"What are they doing?" Regina demanded. "He can't still be kissing the woman! Dear lord, I hope he's not planning on doing anything else right out there in front of the Merlin Tree and everybody. I have an impressionable teenage son out there who's watching the whole thing."

Emma looked at the couple closely. "Yeah, they really should get a room. Anything like a Camelot Inn nearby? Hey," she noticed something different. "I think they're talking now. Why would they be talking? Why aren't they trying to kill each other?"

Merlin had come over to watch and nodded, apparently quite satisfied with the turn of events. "Very good, Rumplestiltskin. You, you were the One I was waiting for. And you found the Other Half, your Belle, on your own," he said to himself. "Very good."

"Well?" Regina demanded. "What are they doing?"

"Watch, Regina. Watch and see the most powerful magic that has ever been. Watch and see what happens," Merlin told her.

 **In Front of the Tower**

Belle and Gold had been kissing for a long time. When he finally let her go, her eyes had returned to their bright blue.

"Rumple, It's still within me! What are we going to do? I don't want to forever to be trying to kill you or feel that you're trying to kill me." She realized something. "If I manage to kill Merlin, then that's what will happen, isn't it? And after us, it will go on and on, forever and ever, with other couples, other people?"

Gold dropped his head so that their foreheads touched. "There's another way," he whispered to her. "It will require a great commitment from you . . . and me, for that matter. But it will solve everything."

Belle looked at him for a long moment. "I understand. It should free me from the dagger, shouldn't it? But we are afraid. The Dark One is afraid. It has never been afraid before," she told him.

"You don't have to be afraid. It doesn't have to be afraid," Gold explained to her. "The Dark One knows me and I know it. The Light One, the Light One is eager to know you," he told her.

 **Inside Merlin's Tower**

As they watched, Belle and Gold stepped slightly apart and joined their hands, palm to palm, together, raising them above their heads. As they watched, they could see the dark oily tendrils of the Darkness beginning to wrap around the two and, at the same time, the light, bright tendrils of Light began to join in. Then a third group of tendrils, ranging from soft pink to rich red strands, joined in with the others, wrapping around the other two, wrapping, weaving and blending themselves all together.

"It looks as if the Dark One's and the Light One's energies are coming together bound by the third energy. What is that?" Regina asked.

Emma had a sudden realization, "That's their True Love. It's allowing them to blend the two forces so that they'll be balanced, one won't have power over the other."

"Yes, Emma, yes," Merlin agreed with her. "I made a terrible mis-step when I separated the two forces. And after I had done it and realized what a terrible mistake it had been, I could not see how to force the Darkness to blend back with the Light. Rumplestiltskin figured it out. True Love could do it. Allow the two forces to come together, to balance. Since neither one can be destroyed, getting them to join together is the only hope of containing them, especially the Darkness which made so much mischief."

"Where will all these energies go?" Emma asked the old sorcerer.

"Back to the hosts, to Rumplestiltskin and to Belle. They will share. The forces will be split between them," Merlin answered and transported them all back outside.

Belle and Gold were still standing with their eyes closed and their hands together. The tendrils of dark and light and pink had disappeared.

Gold opened his eyes first, "Belle?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm here," she answered, slowly opening her eyes. She smiled slowly.

"How do you feel?" he asked her.

"Like myself but . . . there are the others here too."

"Yes," he agreed. "I hear both but they aren't so loud."

"The dagger!" Belle suddenly realized. "Can it still control me? Will it control you?" She pulled it out from a deep pocket in her skirt. She held it out, "Rumple, kiss me," she commanded him.

"With pleasure, but I'll wait until you put the dagger down," he told her, nearly laughing. "The compulsion is there, but I find I can resist it, although I'm not so sure I want to." He looked deep into her eyes. "Trust me?" he asked her and held out his hand.

Hesitantly, her hand trembling, Belle handed Gold the dagger. He took it with a smile. "Belle, my dearest Belle. Turn your back to me," he ordered her holding the dagger out.

She stood a moment, obviously feeling the effect of the dagger but not turning around. "It is a little difficult but there's a part of me that keeps telling me I don't have to do anything I don't want to." She started laughing. "Telling me that I can decide my own fate." She flung herself into Gold's arms, stood on her toes and kissed him.

Gold kissed her back but then looked over to see Henry and then looked up the hill to see Merlin, Regina and Emma. Henry had judged the time was right and was rushing up to them. "You're both all right!"

Emma and Regina had both run down the hill.

"Henry, are you all right?" Regina asked him.

"You okay?" Emma asked at the same time.

"I'm fine. Miss Belle took care of me," Henry told his mothers.

Belle turned to face the two women. "I'm rather . . . uh . . . uncomfortable here. I brought Henry along so I wouldn't have to worry about you two interfering with anything."

"He's all right now, Belle. And you were under the influence of the Dark One," Emma told her.

"You're kind to say that Emma," Belle told her. She turned to Henry. "He did keep reminding me that I was Belle, not the Dark One. I think if I hadn't brought him, then things might have turned out differently."

"Well, I don't blame you for any of this," Regina said to Belle. "I blame him," she looked up the hill at the old sorcerer.

"Why don't you all come in?" Merlin waved to them and they could see there was now a visible door in the tower. They all looked at each other and shrugged.

Gold took Belle's hand and they walked together up the hill. Emma and Henry followed.

"Not sure this is a good idea," Regina muttered but she followed the others.

Inside the tower they now found themselves in a homey kitchen area with a wood stove, a sink, wood counters and cabinets and a heavy wooden table. Although the walls outside definitely appeared to have been made of stone, the inside of the kitchen was all wood to the point of making Henry feel as if he had stepped inside a room carved out of a great tree trunk.

"This was how Nimue always liked the room to appear," Merlin told them. "She was a wood nymph, a very powerful one but nonetheless a simple creature of nature." He turned to Gold. "You favor her, you know. You have the same soft brown eyes."

Gold stepped back. "Do I? Why should I?"

"Oh, this is rich," Regina said having followed Merlin's remarks. "Tell me Merlin," she turned to the powerful old wizard. "About all your children who fled to the Enchanted Forest?"

"Yes?" Merlin asked her.

"Did any of them opt to leave the fairy life? Did they perhaps fall in love with some undeserving human and give up their wings and all their pixie dust?" she asked him.

"Over time, there were several of them."

Emma had figured it out. "And did their children have a capacity for magic?" she asked.

"Oh yes. Now not all of the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest with magic are descended from my children, but many of those who have or had such an aptitude are."

Gold was still confused. "What are you saying? What are you saying?"

"Do you actually need to _see_ the math, Gold?" Emma asked him, having caught on. "This is your great something granddaddy."

Gold shook his head. He was standing next to one of the carved wooden chairs in the room. "I don't think so. That would mean that I would have . . . _oh shit._ " He wavered and sat down. "I can't accept this. I will not accept this."

"We did try to discourage these relationships," Merlin explained. "The offspring would often be a bit out of step with other human kind. They would be smarter or stronger or more sensitive than others."

"Well that alone would leave me out," Gold remarked sourly.

"What? You were certainly the smartest Dark One we'd seen in a very long time, maybe _the_ smartest," Merlin told him bringing around cups of tea to everyone.

"Gee. This means you get to invite Aunt Blue to your next Thanksgiving dinner," Emma told him, trying to contain her mirth.

"Not a chance," Gold had closed up. "I'm not buying that I have any damn fairy blood."

"Not much, but some," Merlin insisted. "You were always so resistant to Blue."

"She turned her back on me when I needed her help most!" Gold protested.

"I know it seemed that way to you . . ." Merlin started.

"It only seemed that way because it _was_ that way," Gold insisted.

"No doubt, your Dark One persona made it difficult for her to accept you, so I don't doubt that there have been a few bumps in the road in your relationship."

"Oh cool, so the Mother Superior is actually my Great something Grandaunt?" Henry asked realizing what this meant.

"No," Gold said at the same time that Merlin said, "Yes."

Belle had put her hand on Gold's shoulder. "Darling we can't help who we're related to," she assured him.

"But I hate the fairies, Belle. Really, really, hate them. They're sanctimonious bitches! They've never helped me, even before I became the Dark One. They never gave a rat's ass about me! For me, for one moment, to think of them as family . . . it's not going to happen. It was hard enough for me to accept the saccharine sweet Charmings as family. No way will I accept Blue as . . . as anything to me."

"You don't have welcome Blue with open arms. You don't even have to speak to her if you don't want to," she patted him on the shoulder.

"Good," Gold told her, "because I have no intention of playing the role of the prodigal son . . . or prodigal nephew."

Belle kissed him lightly on the forehead. She turned to Merlin. "Now that the Dark and Light have been joined and the threat of the Dark One has been contained, is there any reason for you to continue living here, on this island, by yourself?"

"Well," Merlin seemed surprised at her question.

"Why don't you come back with us to Storybrooke?" Belle suggested. "I'm sure you have great magical knowledge that could prove to be useful someday. And I know your children would love to see you again. If you decide you don't want to stay, you could always come back."

Merlin considered. "Might be interesting. A little change in scenery. I have been rather stuck in this place for a while."

"Can we help you get anything together?" Emma asked him.

"Uh," Merlin considered. "Just my little bag here," and he selected a mid-sized leather bag that had been hanging from a hook on the wall. He slung it over his shoulder. "This should be more than enough."

"So we're going?" Regina asked.

"I guess. Can we fly off?" Emma asked.

"No. I put up some pretty powerful wards. It would take a while to take them all down," Merlin told them. "It would be easiest if we went back on the boat to the mainland and then we took on dragon form."

Henry ran on ahead of the group down to the _Beauty._

Emma saw the jet ski pulled up next to the boat. "This is how you two got here?" she asked Henry.

"Yeah mom. It was so cool. Miss Belle let me drive and everything." Henry clamored on board the _Beauty,_ comfortable on the boat. He'd remembered some lessons on steering and navigating that he'd gotten from both his father and from Killian and was eager to put them into practice.

Merlin shook his head, "I'm sorry Henry, but this boat will go where we want it to without our help."

Henry shrugged and sat down in the boat.

"Oh goody, the fog has lifted," Regina noted, settling in.

 **Back at the Dragon's Lair**

Mordred and Lily were out walking along the top battlements of the lair. Mordred, used to scanning the horizon for threats, saw them first. Five dragons flying in. Lily stared out at them.

"Can you see who they are?" she asked him.

"I can if I use my dragon sight." He looked at Lily. "You can switch to dragon sight without changing into dragon form," he explained.

"Really? How do I . . . how do I do that?" she asked.

"Start the change with your eyes and stop," he told her succinctly.

Lily gave it a try and found that, concentrating, she could make out Rumplestiltskin's big green-gold dragon. But none of the others were familiar.

"That's Rumplestiltskin," she said to Mordred.

"Yes and the big brown one with copper highlights is Merlin himself, the old devil. The other three, I have no idea, but . . . I wonder."

"Do you think it could be Emma and Regina?" Lily asked. "but who would the fifth one be?"

"Perhaps your Dark One," Mordred ventured.

They watched as the five dragons honed in on the lair and dropped down. Gold's landing was smooth and easy. He stopped a moment to allow Henry to dismount before changing back. The other dragons seemed to have some difficulties, skidding in, overshooting the runway area, tumbling head over talons.

Mordred watched in amazement. There was a deep red-gold dragon that changed into Regina, a beautiful white dragon with touches of gold became Emma and the last small dragon, a petite sapphire blue, turned into a woman he did not know.

"Lily, Mordred," Gold called out to them. "Allow me to introduce my grandson, Henry, and my wife, Belle."

"Young sir and milady," Mordred bowed and formally greeted the two he did not know. "Is everything resolved?" he asked Gold.

"Quite satisfactorily so," Gold told him. "We're taking Merlin back with us to Storybrooke. He's . . . uh . . . got some relatives there."

"Merlin," Mordred greeted the old sorcerer a bit coldly.

"I thought Camelot could use a break from me," Merlin told him. "And this lady," he gestured to Belle, "was gracious enough to suggest I come and visit Storybrooke."

"Lily, are you coming back with us?" Emma asked.

Lily hesitated. "I. . . I'm not sure."

Mordred said softly, "You are welcome to stay here."

"But . . . well, my mother."

Henry stepped up. "Why don't you have your mother come here?"

Lily looked at Mordred.

"Your mother would be most welcome here," Mordred told her. "I know my grandfather would very much want to see her again . . . and he's in no shape to travel to see her. Now that time is moving again, thanks to the Savior, I fear for Uther. The magical water he was given has cured his illness but it's not an elixir of eternal life and his days . . . I fear, his days are numbered."

"Would you like one of us to talk with your mother about making the trip here?" Regina asked kindly.

"Would you?" Lily asked.

"I can teach her how to make the dimensional jump," Gold assured her.

"Or Henry can just draw a portal door," Belle said. Regina, Emma and Gold turned to her.

"What?!" Gold asked. He looked back at his grandson. "So you did figure that out." He said softly to himself. He smiled at Belle. "Very clever, very clever."

"You left me enough clues," Belle told him.

"I did, but to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure it would work," Gold confessed.

"Really!? And if it hadn't work . . . then . . ."Belle nearly sputtered.

"You would have figured out something else. There was still one dragon left in Storybrooke. You would have helped Maleficent get her memory of realm jumping back. Or you might have tracked down Jefferson and re-energized his hat." Gold shrugged. "Hell, you might have released Zelena and had her conjure up a tornado."

Belle stared at him. "I would _never_ have released Zelena," she told him. "After what she did to you, to Regina and Robin . . . !"

"You say that now," Gold told her smiling. "Belle, I knew, I _knew_ you would figure something out."

Mordred asked the group to stay for a meal. Gold was in a surprisingly amenable mood and agreed on behalf of the group to sharing one last meal with the dragonkin, "Anything besides Granny's lasagna," he had muttered. Of the dragonmen, only Uther seemed happy to see Merlin. Uther studied Belle closely.

"You my dear, have some darkness inside of you," he said to her.

"Yes, your majesty," Belle admitted. "But, I am doing my best to manage it."

"Good girl," he told her. "My people admire strength above all and we know you can never become strong unless you have lived through adversity."

"Well, I've certainly had enough of that," Belle told him.

 **Back in Storybrooke**

The Portal appeared right outside of Gold's shop. It shimmered and then solidified. Henry stepped through, followed by his mothers, then Gold and Belle and then, finally Merlin.

"You may want to . . ." Gold waved his hands and Merlin's attire changed. The older man was now wearing a black suit with an ecclesiastical collar.

Emma chuckled. "Nice touch. So now he's Father Merlin."

"I could put him in a suit, like I wear, if you'd think that would be more appropriate," Gold told her.

"Oh please," Emma rolled her eyes.

"What's wrong with how he dresses?" Belle asked. "I think he looks fantastic."

"Yeah, but you liked him when he was a lizard," Regina reminded her. She looked around. It was late afternoon. "Listen, I'm going to find Robin and Roland and then pay a visit to Mal. I want to see if she wants to get with her daughter and her baby-daddy." Regina turned to Henry. "You coming home with me?"

"I think I'd like to go with Emma. I want to see Grandma and Grandpa Charming," Henry told her.

"Let me know if Mal needs a realm-jumping refresher course," Gold told her. "Merlin, I'm sure we have a room you can stay in tonight."

"That would be nice, but I think I might want to locate my daughters," Merlin told him.

Gold hesitated. He didn't want to have any contact with his new-found relatives. Emma took pity on him, "Henry and I can drive him over to the convent," she told them. "Come on."

"Wait," Belle said. "I need to speak with Merlin for a quick moment. Please." When no one moved, she added, "Privately."

"Of course, why don't you go into my shop," Gold told her.

Belle led the old sorcerer into the dark shop. "I think you should have this," she told him whispering and handed him the dagger which no longer held her name. "Perhaps you could permanently dispose of it," she suggested.

"I think I can manage that," Merlin told her and took the dagger. "This is really a thing of beauty. Too bad it was twisted into such a perversion. I have the perfect place for it." And he opened his bag and dropped the dagger into it.

"Will it be safe there?" Belle asked.

"Would you like to reach into my bag and try to pull it out?" He asked her. "Here, take a look inside," and he opened the bag. The bag, about the size of something that could hold a bowling ball appeared empty, the gold silk lining shimmering.

"What?! Where'd it go?" she asked

"This bag is . . . uh . . . rather special. Only someone who knows how it works can get things out of it."

"How many other people know about this magic?" Belle asked him.

Merlin considered. "I think just me," he told her.

"Let's keep it that way," Belle told him and then she smiled at him. "Thank you," she told him and gave him a quick hug.

Emma took Henry and led Merlin back to the Diner where she had long ago left her car. Belle and Gold were left alone outside of his shop.

"Would you allow me to transport us home?" Belle asked him.

"Please," he wrapped his arms around her and noted that a soft blue mist circled around them both, disappearing as they were transported back to his Victorian.

He couldn't restrain a smirk – Belle had transported them directly to the bedroom.

"I missed you too, Belle." And he waved his hands to remove their clothing, opting to leave her only in her scanty underwear and himself in his boxers.

Belle grabbed him and pushed him down on the bed. "I've missed you too," and she dove on him. She nestled up against him and he wrapped his arms around her. Belle began to kiss him along his neck and up his chin, working her way up to his mouth. She let her hand drift down and slip under the band of his boxers. Her fingers stroked him and grasped him and she was elated to hear him catch his breath. She slipped off her panties and then focused on pushing down his boxers. He was stroking her arm delighting in the soft smoothness of her skin.

"You always smell so good," he told her burying his nose in her hair. He started to push her onto her back, but she stopped him.

"Lie back," she told him and swung herself on top of him to straddle him. She leaned forward to rub his shoulders then sat up, lifting herself up and then lowering herself slowly onto him. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoyed the hot, tight sensation that she provided him. Belle began to rock back and forth. Gold reached up to unfasten her bra and then brought his hands around to support her breasts, taking the opportunity to tweak her distended nipples.

"I like this," he told her as he began to lift his hips to push against her. He loved watching her face as she labored toward fulfillment, her lips softening and her eyes looking drowsy as she approached her climax. He knew she would, in time, cry out and tremble, her body would clench around him and pull his own release from him. She would then collapse on him, nearly dissolving into him, relaxing and panting on top of him.

Afterwards, they lay together in the dark for a long time. He thought she had gone on to sleep and was surprised when, in a small voice, she spoke.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, dearest, anything," he told her.

"When you first brought me into the Dark Castle . . . why didn't . . . I mean, having been the Dark One, I know that . . . " she took a deep breath, "sex is one of the Dark One's tools and . . . and pleasures. Why didn't you . . . ?" she couldn't finish.

"Rape you?" he asked softly. He didn't respond right away. "If I had been a different Dark One, that would have likely been your fate. But I still had enough of myself in me and I was very focused on some tricky aspects of getting my curse to work that I didn't give it any consideration. You were actually a bit of a distraction."

"Just a bit?" she asked with a giggle.

"All right, more than a bit of a distraction. And then . . . I got to know you and . . . you seemed to like me."

"I did like you. I thought you were sweet and lonely."

"Sweet. The Dark One was sweet," he nearly chuckled.

"No," she corrected him, "Rumplestiltskin was sweet, the Dark One was lonely."

 **The Next Morning at Storybrooke**

Belle fixed breakfast for herself and her husband. Emma had texted them the night before that Merlin had been greeted with enthusiasm by Blue and her sisters and he had decided to stay at the Convent. Gold had risen early with her and played the part of her sous chef, buttering toast and squeezing some fresh orange juice at her direction.

"How are you feeling?" Gold had asked her.

"Different," she told him. "I feel _full_. Different from when I was the Dark One." She shook her head, not sure of how to explain herself. "How do you feel?"

"Different," he told her. "Full is a good word. I recognize the Dark One and the Light One, both of them. They really aren't so different, each pulling in one direction or another."

"We'll have them with us now, forever, won't we?" she asked him.

"I think . . . yes," he told her.

"So I guess when you told me 'it's forever,' you really meant, 'it's forever,'" Belle told him lightly.

"I guess I did," he had to agree.

Belle scrambled some eggs watching them so that they didn't overcook. She spooned them onto plates.

"I can still do magic?" she asked.

Gold nodded. "Well, you were able to transform yourself into a dragon; that took a lot of energy. I suspect you're very powerful. You already have a lot of practical knowledge and now you have the raw power to back it up."

Belle added bacon and toast to the plates. She carried them to the table and returned with a pot of hot water to pour over two cups each holding a teabag.

"I'm going to need some help . . . managing," she told him.

"Are you asking me to be your teacher?" Gold asked her. "You sure you want me and not Regina?"

Belle pulled a face. "Don't think I want the woman who imprisoned me for nearly thirty years teaching me magic, no matter how much she's changed her spots. And please don't suggest Emma – she's out of control half the time herself. Yes, I'm asking you to be my teacher."

Gold smiled. "I think I might like that."

The two enjoyed a quiet breakfast. Gold adjusted his tie and told Belle he felt he needed to get down to his shop. Belle thought this was a good idea and she would be coming with him. She could survey how much damage she had done when she'd had her little temper tantrum while she was the Dark One. Perhaps she could fix whatever still needed fixing.

It was cool quiet morning with no street traffic other than Gold's solid black Cadillac. He parked around back as usual. Gold unlocked his front door and entered his dark, dusty shop. He looked around. "Why is there a frog in my shop?" he asked of no one in particular.

Belle who had followed him in, peered over his shoulder and winced.

"Do you know about this?" he turned and asked her.

"Maybe."

"And?"

"I might have had something to do with this frog."

"Yes?"

"I might have . . . " she hesitated, finding it difficult to get her response out.

"Go on," he encouraged her.

"I might have turned Killian Jones into a frog," she confessed.

Gold began to chuckle and, a sound that hadn't been heard from him in more than three hundred years, he then began to laugh.

"Priceless," he told her, grinning at her.

"But I'm not sure I know how to turn him back!" she shared with him, alarmed. "It was dark magic and I was irritated with him and I don't know I understand what I did."

"Oh, I don't think there will be any problem turning him back," Gold reassured her.

Belle started to protest again when the door to the shop crashed open.

Gold turned on the interloper. When he saw who it was, he said, "Are you still determined to break my little bell?"

"Where's Killian?" It was Emma. She was, well, upset. Maybe a little angry.

"I believe, right here," Gold gestured to the frog.

"He's a frog!"

Gold went over and looked closely. "Yes, I think you're right."

"Well, one of you, turn him back!" Emma insisted.

"Not sure how to," Gold told her. "Turning people back requires that you know the exact incantation that was used to change them. I have a few standard ones that I've used, but . . . well, I'm not the one who turned him into a frog." He glanced back at Belle.

"Oh, Emma, I'm so sorry. I know I did this while I was under the Dark Curse and . . . and . . . I don't know what I did to change him into a frog."

"Then this could be permanent?" Emma asked.

Gold rolled his eyes, "Dearie," he began. "You've never read a fairy tale where a for real and for true princess, such as yourself, was able to turn a frog back into a prince . . . or at least back into some semblance of his former self."

"So I just have to kiss him?" Emma asked.

"No. You don't _have_ to kiss him. I'd be content with him remaining a frog," Gold told her sincerely.

Emma sighed. "All right, all right, all right. Let me get him out and give it a go," she reached in the aquarium and pulled out the frog. It was rather somnolent and blinked his eyes when she woke him up.

"Any particular technique I need to use?" Emma asked Gold.

"Open-mouth with a lot of tongue," Gold advised her. When Emma pulled a horrified face, he sighed. "Just pucker up," he told her.

"I don't know what is grossing me out more," Emma shook her head. "An image of you with open-mouth and a lot of tongue or the . . . puckering." She lifted the frog up and closed her eyes and kissed him.

There was a swirling of green and blue smoke and tendrils of black power that whirled around Emma and the Frog. When the smoke dissipated, Emma was holding onto Killian.

"See, Miss Swan. A real and for true princess," Gold reminded her.

"What happened?" Jones asked, disoriented, finding himself abruptly in Gold's shop.

"You were gone for a while," Gold explained. "I'm sure Miss Swan will catch you up."

 **Late that Evening in the Shop**

Belle had gone home. She had wanted to try her hand at fixing her husband a 'special meal.' Gold had been dusting and rearranging things all day and he was thinking about closing up his shop and going home to his bride when he heard the bell on his shop door.

"I'm closing up," he called out.

There was no answer and he went out to see who it was coming by so late.

When he saw who it was, he just stood and looked. Not anyone he ever wanted to see.

"I thought you might want to hear about one of my sisters. She was very special, very smart, very brave. I think she would have been very proud of you. Interesting enough, she was known to all as the Gold Fairy."

 **The End**

 **This is the final chapter of this story (not too much else to address here).Thanks to all those who have reviewed, followed, and favorited this story, most recently to reviewers: Grace5231973, deweymay, Robin4, Erik'sTrueAngel, ladybugsmomma, TheGoldenHawk, MyraValhallah, orthankg1, jewel415 and Aletta-Feather (chapters 9 & 10).**

 **I'll likely go on a brief hiatus and come back with another story. I have several WIP, including three movie rewrites (they are harder than you might think). These stories include Sabrina, Roman Holiday and the Maltese Falcon. Two of these require major re-writes of their endings (I can't have Belle and Gold falling in love and then walking away from each other or have him send her to jail). I also have a role reversal story with Belle as the Dark One and Rumple as the caretaker of her house – my version does seem to be different than others I've read—Rumple won't be acquiring any major powers and Belle is a much subdued Dark One – this one seems to be a quiet story about two damaged people falling in love (a little angst but mostly sweetness and fluff). If you should have any preference please let me know, I'm floundering a bit in deciding which one to push out of the nest. Thx so much. - Twyla**


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